
THE PERCY REPRINTS ia. 

s 

THE SEVEN J§* 

DEADLY SINNES g| 

OF LONDON fy 



By THOMAS DEKKER 



OXFORD £|} 

BASIL BLACK.WELL 




aassP:B22A5 

Book ^A_ 



\ C \Z> / ^ 



The Percy %eprints, ${o. 4 



THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES 
OF LONDON 



The Tercy Reprints 

I NASHE'S VNFORTVNATE 

TRAVELLER 

II GAMMER GVRTONS NEDLE 

III PEACOCK'S FOUR AGES OF 

POETRY 

SHELLEY'S DEFENCE OF 

POETRY 
BROWNING'S ESSAY ON 
SHELLEY 
IV DEKKER'S SEVEN DEADLY 

SINNES OF LONDON 
V CONGREVE'S INCOGNITA 
VI THE WORKS OF SIR GEORGE 
ETHEREGE 
VII THE POEMS OF RICHARD 

CORBET 
VIII BECKFORD'S THOUGHTS ON 
HUNTING 



THE SEVEN DEADLY 
SINNES OF LONDON 

By THOMAS DEKKER 



Edited by H. F. B. BRETT-SMITH 



OXFORD 

BASIL BLACKWELL 

1922 



u 



A&aa-S? 
34 



INTRODUCTION 

THOMAS DEKKER had a full share of the versatility 
of his age in literature ; he was a ready pamphleteer, 
' had poetry enough for anything,' and was valued, 
even to the point of being bailed out of prison, as a vigorous 
writer for the tragic or comic stage. If we think more 
to-day of the critic of Satiro-Mastix than of the singer of 
Sweet Content, more of the creator of Orlando Eriscobaldo 
and Bellafront and Simon Eyre than of the popular journalist, 
it is because of the overshadowing height of Elizabethan 
drama, and the greater accessibility of his plays. Yet as a 
prose author he has a claim upon us which none of his con- 
temporaries can match, for upon him fell the mantle of 
Greene and Nashe, with a generous share of their skill. It is 
to Dekker's pamphlets that we go for a knowledge of London 
life in the reign of James I. 

The tract now reprinted marks a half-way stage, in subject 
as well as in date, between The Wonderfull Yeare 1603 and 
the most famous of Dekker's prose pieces, The Guls Horn- 
booke. The descriptions of the Plague in The Wonderfull 
Yeare have a command of anecdote which can hardly be 
expected at a distance from the event ; there are ghastly 
things to be found in The Seven Deadly Sinnes, but they are 
not so thick-coming and absorbing, and their interest is one 
among many. The Guls Hornebooke, on the other hand, has 
the sole object of ridiculing the extravagances of the man 
about town and the life of public places in 1609, and the task 
is joyously performed, with an unrivalled wealth of detail, 
In The Seven Deadly Sinnes Dekker had other game in view, 



vi INTRODUCTION 

yet its first editor held that apart from one other of his 
productions there was ' perhaps no tract, in our language 
which contains so many and such curious illustrations of the 
language, opinions and manners of our ancestors,' and 
whether for invention, or for accuracy and vividness of 
description, he confessed to being aware of nothing precisely 
like it in the English tongue. Without going quite so far 
as Collier, it is still possible to maintain that in all these 
points the pamphlet, however hastily written, is a remarkable 
one ; and indeed the evidence lies at hand. 

It is probable enough that there is no exaggeration in the 
motto Opus septem Dierum ; we have little knowledge of 
Dekkef's life, but he wrote to supply his necessities, and 
there is no intrinsic reason why The Seven Deadly Sinnes 
should have taken longer to compose than The History of 
Rasselas. Invention is there in plenty, but without laborious- 
ness. The times favoured any author of ease and spirit, 
especially if he had some tincture of the classics as well as 
an eye for the life around him. During the reign of Elizabeth, 
the New Learning and the Grammar Schools had prepared 
a public very ready to appreciate a Latin quotation and a 
curious turn of phrase. The strong allegorical vein, in which 
Dekker so often reminds his reader of Bunyan, was welcome 
to an England which had just digested The Faerie Queene, 
and now that printing had become cheap, it was profitable 
to gratify the natural interest of the public in its own appear- 
ance, manners and shortcomings. The latter were made a 
special target, and Dekker's judgement is shown in his choice 
of a title ; mediaeval literature had been full of the seven 
deadly sins. By adding ' of London,' he increased and 
specialised an attraction which Marlowe had not scorned, and 
by dressing up his seven victims in the fashions of the time, 
and bedevilling them roundly, he gave rein to that impulse 
towards edification which has been felt by so many writers 
of imaginative English prose. His Induction opens with a 
set piece in praise of the Bible, and in many moralising 



INTRODUCTION vii 

passages he instinctively adopts the language of the Hebrew- 
prophets. 1 This tendency is the more striking, because his 
attitude towards Puritanism is not altogether conciliatory ; 
it was evidently on the general support of the public that he 
relied. At the same time, the moral trend of the piece may 
easily be overestimated ; Dekker knew, no doubt, the secret 
of popular preaching, and his readers were given every 
opportunity of damning sins they had no mind to. 

But he did not confine himself to one kind of appeal, or 
to a single model. He saw the journalistic importance, 
never greater than in that age, of writing an artificial style 
and showing agility in word-play. Much of it is wasted upon 
us now for one reason or another ; ' latten,' no longer known 
as a metal, has taken with it many a jest, and an age which 
has lost that excellent epithet ' key-cold ' loses all the neat- 
ness of its application to a sleepy porter. Moreover, the 
taste in wit has changed ; puns upon lictores and lectores 
are too classical for us ; upon Freestone prisons, too far- 
sought ; upon Sack-butts, as instruments both of music 
and of carousing, too unfamiliar. We take no pleasure in 
the kind of wit that makes heaven an Upper House, or God 
a reader of Hebrew lectures, or the moon pale with sitting 
up for the night. If this were the best Dekker could do, we 
should find excuse for the readers who ' stand somtimes at a 
Stationers stal, looking scuruily (like Mules champing vpon 
Thistles) on the face of a new Booke bee it never so worthy : 
& goe (as il fauouredly) mewing aw r ay.' 2 But this quotation 
itself, with its vivid touches of life, answers the momentary 
suspicion, so clearly does it convey the discontented face of 
the book-stall loiterer three hundred years ago. Even at 
that distance the picture of Sloth, ' yawning, and his Chin 
knocking nods into his brest,' induces drowsy conjectures as 

1 For example, in the continual use of doublet repetitions, as at 
page 25 : ' For oathes are wounds that a man stabs into himselfe, 
yea, they are burning words that consume those who kindle them.' 

2 P. 5. 



viii INTRODUCTION 

to the number of centuries over which it may be possible 
to catch a yawn. And Dekker has the true journalist's love 
of the unexpected; he will begin a sentence in his heavy 
tragic manner, only to fly out and mock our solemn faces in 
the hinder end, as in the exploits of Candle-light ' about the 
houre when Spirits walke, and Cats goe a gossipping.' His 
very tags and proverbs have pictorial quality ; the prisoners 
swarm about Bankruptism ' like Bees about Comfit-makers,' 
and the followers of Lying march ' as pert as Taylours at a 
wedding.' It is true that fashions change, and the out-of-date 
is always first observed, but there is much of Dekker's clever- 
ness that age cannot wither, and for a stroke of secular wit, 
so easy in delivery as to make no vulgar show, not even 
Swift could improve upon the thanks offered to his encomiast 
by Bankruptism, who gave the poor orator ' very good 
words . . . vowing he would euer Hue in his debt.' 

The value of the pamphlet lies more in its general portrait 
of the times than in any literary allusions, though in these it 
is far from barren. To Marlowe we owe references to both 
Tamburlaine and Gaveston, and an echo of his famous fine 
' Infinite riches in a little roome ' makes clear the origin of 
' the rich lew of London, Barabbas Bankruptisme.' * No 
Elizabethan could be ignorant of The Spanish Tragedie, and 
Dekker speaks of the things that took the fancy of Shake- 
speare and Beaumont and Fletcher — the tragic entry of old 
Jeronimo, and the insistent cry of the Ghost of Andrea upon 
Revenge. 2 To Euphues there is no specific reference, but 
an author is not to seek in his Lyly or his Pliny who can 
compare a scoundrel in one breath to ' a Harpy that lookes 
smoothly, a Hyena that enchants subtilly, a Mermaid that 
sings sweetly, and a Cameleon, that can put himself e into all 
colours.' 3 With Jonson there is perhaps one link ; Dekker 
writes that ' Man (doubtlesse) was not created to bee an idle 
fellow ... he was not set in this Vniuersall Orchard to 

1 Pp. 46, 1. 26 ; 43, 1. 7 ; 52, 1. 1 ; 23, 1. 5. 
» Pp. 34, 1. 6 ; 54, 1. 7. 3 Pp. 15-16. 



INTRODUCTION ix 

stand still as a Tree, and so to bee cut downe, but to be cut 
downe if he should stand still.' x This is a curious parallel 
to Jonson's well-known lines : 

It is not growing like a tree 

In bulk, doth make Man better be ; 

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 

To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere. 

So too with the greatest name of all. Who can read ' Some- 
times hee's a Puritane ' 2 without thinking of Maria's account 
of Malvolio ; or hear that Candle-light's Coachman so sweats 
with yarking his cattle ' that he drops tallowe, and that 
feedes them as prouender,' 3 without remembering a whorson 
Candle-mine, or greasy Tallow-Catch, who larded the lean 
earth as he walked along ? Even the epithets of the attack 
on prosperous citizens, ' O veluet-garded Theeues ! O yea- 
and-by-nay Cheaters ! ' 4 recall Hotspur's instructions : 

Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 

A good mouth-filling oath, and leave ' In sooth,' 

And such protest of pepper-gingerbread, 

To velvet guards, and Sunday-citizens. 

There is no need to lay stress on such resemblances ; they 
may be accidental. Certain tricks of phrase, certain subjects, 
were in the air. Dekker, like all his fellows, must needs be 
critical of his countrymen's catholic taste in clothes. ' An 
English-man's suite,' he complains, ' is like a traitors bodie 
that hath beene hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set 
vp in seuerall places : his Codpeece is in Denmarke, the 
collor of his Dublet, and the belly in France : the wing and 
narrow sleeue in Italy : the short waste hangs ouer a Dutch 
Botchers stall in Vtrich : his huge sloppes speakes Spanish : 
Polonia giues him the Bootes.' 5 It has a familiar tang ; 
the accent is that of Portia's concise strictures on young 
Faulconbridge : ' I think he bought his doublet in Italy, 
his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his 

1 P. 36. } P. 16. 3 p. 35. * P. 17. 5 p 44< 



x INTRODUCTION 

behaviour everywhere.' Dekker may have known that 
passage, just as he may have known the cheery lines of Tom 
Heywood : 

The Spaniard loves his ancient slop, 

The Lombard his Venetian, 
And some like breechless women go — 

The Russ, Turk, Jew, and Grecian. 
The thrifty Frenchman wears small waist, 

The Dutch his belly boasteth ; 
The Englishman is for them all, 

And for each fashion coasteth. 

But the hit was confessedly suggested to him by another 
which had been in print a score of years before either Heywood 
or Shakespeare was born. There had been published in 
1542 a treatise, more humane than its title warrants, called 
' The fyrst boke of the Introduction of knowledge. . . . Made 
by Andrew Borde, of Physycke Doctor,' and it opens, after 
the Dedication and Table, with a woodcut of a bearded and 
bewildered Englishman, extremely lightly clad, holding a 
great pair of tailor's shears and a roll of cloth, while beneath 
it run the opening lines of the text, treating of ' the naturall 
dysposicion of an Englyshman, and of the noble realme of 
England ' : 

I am an English man, and naked I stand here, 

Musyng in my mynde what rayment I shal were ; 

For now I wyl were thys, and now I wyl were that ; 

Now I wyl were I cannot tel what. 

All new fashyons be pleasaunt to me ; 

I wyl haue them, whether I thryue or thee. 

Andrew Borde's woodcut grew famous, and to it many an 
Elizabethan writer must have been more or less consciously 
indebted. 

Such matters have their interest, but the parallels of 
Elizabethan authorship are a scholar's pastime, 1 and Dekker 
was no plagiary but a free captain of mercenary literature. 

1 See Appendix, p. 61. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

He wrote, to our good fortune, for the London of his prime 
on an absorbing subject, its own likeness. That he loved the 
city none can doubt who reads his descriptions of it. Some- 
times it is London at midday, in the full tide of business ; 
' in euery street, carts and Coaches make such a thundring 
as if the world ranne vpon wheeles : at euerie corner, men, 
women, and children meete in such shoales, that postes are 
set vp of purpose to strengthen the houses, least with iustling 
one another they should shoulder them downe. Besides, 
hammers are beating in one place, Tubs hooping in another, 
Pots clincking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in 
a fourth : heere are Porters sweating vnder burdens, there 
Marchants-men bearing bags of money, Chapmen (as if they 
were at Leape-frog) skippe out of one shop into another : 
Tradesmen (as if they were dauncing Galliards) are lusty at 
legges and neuer stand still : all are as busie as countrie 
Atturneyes at an Assizes.' 1 Or again he limns a night scene, 
' when al doores are lockt vp, when no eyes are open, when 
birds sit silent in bushes, and beasts lie sleeping vnder hedges ' ; 
this is the time, when darkness, like a thief out of a hedge, 
has crept upon the earth, that ' the Banckrupt, the Fellon, 
and all that owed any mony, and for feare of arrests, or 
Iustices warrants, had like so many Snayles kept their houses 
ouer their heads al the day before, began now to creep out 
of their shels, & to stalke vp & down the streets as vprightly, 
& with as proud a gate as if they meant to knock against 
the starres with the crownes of their heads.' 2 It is good 
descriptive prose, with yet a touch of the high astounding 
terms of the age in that crowned and starred comparison. 

To such a writer nothing comes amiss. The comedy of 
addresses of welcome from public orators armed with an 
extemporall speech, of the learned rules of Drunkenness, of 
the Morralls of Manningtree and the triumphing on Mid- 
summer night, mingles with the tragedy of the Plague and 

1 Pp. 37-8. 2 Pp. 3°-32. 



xii INTRODUCTION 

St. Bartholomew's Day, and the oppression of usurers, 
jailors and the rich guildsmen who dealt hardly with their 
apprentices. The sober Perpetuana-suited Puritan, the 
serving man and his wench, the barber bidding his customer 
1 winck hard ' while he runs to the door to see what is afoot, 
the Beadle and the Bell-man, the damask-coated citizen, the 
Grape-monger and the unthrifts who walk at night at a wise 
distance from the brown bills of Master Constable and his 
men — all these pass before us in living puppet-show. For so 
clear a vision we owe much to Thomas Dekker, who knew 
by experience the underworld of his l,ondon as well as its 
cheerful bustle, who was bailed out of the Counter in 1598 
at a cost of forty shillings, and was discharged next year, 
at near double the rate, from the arrest of my lord chamber- 
lain's men. Misfortune had not soured him, nor warped his 
sense of life, in an age when such matters were philosophically 
viewed, according to the maxim of his great predecessor in 
free-lance pamphleteering, ' Debt and deadly sinne, who is 
not subiect to ? ' 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

' A BOOK called The Seuen deadly synnes of London 

I \ drawen in 7 seuerall coaches throughe the 7 gates of 

J^ \_ the city ' was entered in the Stationers' Register on 
October 6, 1606, in the name of Nathanael Butter, for whom 
it was printed in the same year. In spite of its alluring title, 
the pamphlet did not attain to a second edition. Most of 
the little quartos must have been thumbed to pieces early ; 
few now survive, and a manuscript note in the Grenville 
copy calls this the rarest of Dekker's pieces. 

The book has been four times reproduced by modern 
editors. Forty copies only were privately printed in 1866 
by J. Payne Collier, who issued it in the second volume of 
his Illustrations of Old English Literature. In 1879 Hdward 
Arber made it the seventh volume of his English Scholar's 
Library. Alexander Grosart, in 1885, included it in the 
second volume of his limited and privately printed edition of 
Dekker's Non-Dramatic Works, and in 1905 the Cambridge 
University Press issued it as a plain quarto text, without 
editorial matter, two hundred and fifty copies only being 
printed. All four editions reproduce to a considerable 
extent the spelling and differentiations of type of the original, 
though the Cambridge reprint is handicapped by the use of 
roman type only in the text. Unfortunately Arber's volume, 
which is the most accessible, is often at fault in the omission 
or misreading of words ; Grosart's text is more accurate, but 
he omits the Bpistle. 

The present text is a reprint of the first edition, and 
follows the Douce copy in the Bodleian library, shelf-mark 
Douce P. 692. In cases of doubt (e.g. where a letter or stop 



xiv BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

is blurred, or has not taken the ink) the other Bodleian copy, 
Malone 602, has been consulted. For certain points I have 
also referred to the only other examples of this book which 
I have seen, viz. the Grenville copy in the British Museum, 
G. 10452 ; George Steevens's copy, bearing his autograph 
on the back of the title, also in the British Museum, 291 e. 34 ; 
the copy formerly in the collection of Thomas Jolley and now 
in the Guildhall Library, A. vii. 3 ; and the Christie-Miller 
copy, since sold, in the dispersal of a section of the Britwell 
Court library in February of this year, to an American 
purchaser. 

A word-for-word comparison of the text of these six copies, 
with a view to the variations frequent in Elizabethan printing, 
would be beyond the scope of the present edition, which aims 
at presenting a trustworthy reprint of the Douce copy. But 
a brief comparison on certain chosen points and passages 
makes it probable that variations (apart from the title-page) 
are few, and are limited to the usual correction of minor 
errors discovered during the process of printing, after a certain 
number of sheets had been pulled. Most of these errors are 
to be found in the Malone copy, which must include an early 
pull of sheet E. At sig. E 3, 1. 26 (p. 41, 1. 15 of the present 
edition) , the Malone copy reads ' riding by a Sumpter-horse 
with prouander \ The mistake was evidently discovered in 
good time, and the compositor inserted the missing preposi- 
tion, justified his line by turning the letters ' an ' into ' a/ 
and produced the correct reading, ' riding by on a Sumpter- 
horse with prouader ', which is found in the other five copies. 
Similarly, six lines lower, the Malone copy reads ' that weare 
his cloth are Anglus,' Again the misprint was observed, 
' Anglus,' altered to ' Anglers, 7 the line justified by reading 
' wear ' for ' weare ', and the correct reading of the other five 
copies produced. The Malone copy is also the only one of 
the six to be guilty of a turned; letter at sig. [E4] verso, 
1. 34 (p. 45, 1. 3 of the present edition), ' Conrt ' for ' Court '. 
On the other hand, while in all six copies the first word of 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xv 

the text on sig. E is ' very ' (p. 36, 1. 19 of the present edition), 
the Douce copy gives an incorrect catchword ' way ' on the 
previous page. This too was corrected, and the catchword 
in the other five copies is ' veary.' The Douce copy also errs 
in reading ' Many ' (for the correct ' Mary ' of the Malone 
copy) at p. 28, 1. 7 ; unfortunately this point escaped my 
notice till after the Britwell copy had been sold, and I have 
consequently — as there is nothing at stake — neither attempted 
to ascertain its reading, nor investigated that of the three 
copies in London. 

In Elizabethan title-pages uniformity is not to be expected. 
Those of The Seven Deadly Sinnes were no doubt produced 
at intervals, as required, and each one of the six copies varies 
to some extent in typographical detail from all the rest, 
though the two Museum copies are almost identical. The 
chief difference is in the ornamental block. The Douce 
copy alone has the device of the Deity sitting in clouds 
above the cherubim, with a dove with outspread wings in 
the foreground. This is clearer in the original than in the 
full-size reproduction of the Douce title in the present edition, 
because the dove and its fan-shaped background, and the 
head of the Deity, are coloured a faint red (not obscuring 
the black outlines) in the original, while in the reproduction 
this red necessarily takes form as a black blur. Instead of 
this device, the two Museum copies contain a rectangular 
block, rather more high than broad, representing the Good 
Shepherd carrying a lamb across his shoulders, with the 
motto PERHT ET INVENTA EST on an encircling band, 
and scroll-work, palms, etc., fining up the corners and sides 
outside the band. A landscape and buildings occupy the 
background on both sides of the central figure. A third 
device is found in the Malone, Guildhall, and Britwell copies ; 
a conventional design of a filleted head, with laurel branches 
on each side of it, surmounting a semicircular piece of 
scroll-work. There are also, among the title-pages of the 
six copies, so many minor and unimportant variations of 



xvi BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

spelling, punctuation, capitals, and typographical detail, 
that specification of them would be as uninteresting as 
laborious. All six copies have the title partially rubricated, 
the words concerned being ' seuen ' and ' Coaches ' in 1. 4 ; 
1 seuen ' and ' Gates ' in 1. 5 ; ' plague ' in 1. 7 ; the date 
(which however is clipped away from the Malone copy, and 
torn out of that in the Grenville collection) and the whole 
of lines 2, 6, 8 and 10. It is improbable that copies varied 
at all in rubrication, except that as none of the other five has 
the block found in the Douce title, they lack also the two 
touches of red previously described. For the name of the 
book, the spelling of the running title is more likely than 
that of the title-page to be the author's, and I have followed 
it ; it may however be worth while to point out, in corrobora- 
tion, that the Douce title-page is alone among the six in 
reading ' deadlie ' for ' deadly,' and may have been alone 
also in reading ' Sinns ' for ' Sinnes,' though the mutilation 
of this word in the Malone and Guildhall copies makes it 
impossible to establish the point. 

The collation of the 1606 edition is as follows : [A 1] a 
blank ; [A 2] the Title, verso blank ; A 3 and verso The 
Epistle ; [A 4] and verso To the Reader, followed (in lower 
part of verso) by The names of the Actors ; A to [A 4] The 
Induction to the Booke ; [A 4] verso blank ; then the main 
text occupying B to G in fours, with [G4] verso blank. 
The Douce, Malone, Guildhall and Steevens copies have the 
preliminary matter in correct order, except that the Steevens 
copy (which Grosart must have used) lacks the Epistle ; 
the binder of the Grenville copy has misplaced in the order 
Reader, Epistle, Induction ; and the binder of the Britwell 
copy in the order Epistle, Induction, Reader. The correct 
order has been preserved in all subsequent editions except 
that produced by the Cambridge University Press, which 
prints the Epistle after the address to the Reader and the 
names of the Actors. 

The original quarto printed by Edward Allde contains 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE xvii 

few obvious errors, and Collier is perhaps a little severe in 
his statement that ' inaccuracies and bad workmanship shew 
the haste with which the piece was composed by the typo- 
grapher.' Bad workmanship is no doubt a term of wide 
application, but in important points the accuracy of the 
1606 text can seldom be impugned, though some dozens of 
trivial slips in text or punctuation are to be found. Where 
such errors have been corrected in the text of the present 
edition, the original reading and the correction are duly 
noted, for the information of scholars, in the appendix of 
Textual Emendations. The original punctuation has been 
preserved, and readers unf amiliar with the system of pointing 
in use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries should bear 
in mind that Elizabethan punctuation was rhythmical or 
even rhetorical, while that of to-day is based on logic or 
syntax. 

The roman type, varied by italic, of the Dedication, 
Address to the Reader, Names of the Actors, and Induction, 
is followed exactly in the present text, but the black letter, 
with occasional roman, of the main body of the book is here 
replaced respectively by roman and italic type. Latin 
quotations, printed in italic in the original, are also repro- 
duced in italic. The italic side-notes, printed in the margin 
of the original, are inset in the present text. The 1606 
compositor occasionally used a wrong fount ; I have noted a 
roman x used among black letter in the words ' next ' (p. 42, 
1. 12), ' Executors ' (p. 48, 1. 26), and ' examples ' (p. 53, 1. 11), 
and there may be other instances. To have perpetuated 
such accidents by a difference of type would have been 
absurd. The long f, which is a mere source of annoyance 
to modern readers, has everywhere been replaced by s. The 
running titles of the original are in upper and lower case 
roman (except that of The Epistle, which is italic) , thus : 
'To the Reader.' 'The Induction to the Booke.' 'The 
seuen deadly Sinnes of London.' Of the main running title 
this last is the more frequent form, and is found throughout 
b 



xviii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

sigs. B and C, though in sigs. D, B, F and G the spelling 
' Seauen ' or ' seauen ' occurs eight times to seven of the 
spelling ' seuen/ The latter has been adopted throughout 
the present edition, in which however the running titles have 
been uniformly represented in roman capitals. No attempt 
has been made to reproduce the bands of printer's ornament, 
or the occasional decorative initial capitals of the original ; 
the latter have been represented by plain drop capitals, and 
the former have been omitted. 

H. F. B. B.-S. 
Oxford, 
May 1922. 



THE 

Seuen deadlie Sinns 

of London.* 

Vr atone in feuenfeueraH 'Coaches, 
Through the feuenfeueraH <jate$ of the 

Gtie~> 

Bringing the plague with them. 

Ofwfytem Durum, 
Tho.Dekker f 





At London 

Printedby E.o/.for 'HatbankltButter^iaxi to be fold 
at his fhop neere tfairit Auftens gate, 
S*o$, ° 



"To the IVorshipfull and very worthy 

Gentleman Henry Fermor Es- 
quire, Clarke of the Peace for the 

Countie of Middlesex. 

I Am sory (deare Sir) that in a time (so abudat with 
wit) I shold send vnto you no better fruit then the 
sins of a City : but they are not comon, (for they were 
neuer gathered till this yeare) and therefore I send them for 
the Rarity : Yet now I remember my selfe, they are not 
the Sinnes of a Citie, but onely the picture of them. And 
a Drollerie (or Dutch peece of Lantskop) may sometimes 
breed in the beholders eye, as much delectatio, as the best 
& most curious master-peece excellet in that Art. Bookes 
being sent abroad after they are begotte into the world, as 
This of mine is, are in the nature of Orphans ; But being 
receiued into a Gardianship (as I make no doubt but this 
shall) they come into the happie state of adopted children. 
That office must now be yours, and you neede not bee 
ashamed of it, for Kings haue beene glad to doe them honour, 
that haue bestowed such a neuer-dying honour vppon them. 
The benefite you shall receiue, is this, that you see the build- 
ing vp of a tombe (in your life time) wherein you are sure so 

3 



4 THE EPISTLE 

to lie, as that you cannot bee forgotte ; & you read that 
very Epitaph that shal stand ouer you, which by no Enuie can 
bee defaced, nor by any time worne out. I haue made choise 
of you alone, to bee the onely Patron to these my labours : 
by which word {onely) I chalenge to my selfe a kinde of 
Dignitie : for there hath beene a Generation of a sort of 
strange fellowes (and I thinke the race is not yet eaten out) 
who when a Booke (of theire owne) hath bin borne in the 
lawfull Matrimonie of Learning, and Industrie, haue basely 
compeld it either like a bastard, to call a great many father 
(and to goe vnder all their names) or else (like a common 
fellow at a Sessions) to put himselfe (as the tearme is) vpon 
twelue godfathers. In which case (contrarie to all law) the 
Foreman is most dishonoured. That art of Skeldring I 
studie not, I stand vpon stronger Bases. The current of 
a mans Reputation, being diuided into so manie Riuolets 
must needes grow weake. If you giue intertainment to 
this in your best affection, you will binde me (one 
day) to heigthen your name, when by some 
more worthy Columne (by me to be erected) 
I shall consecrate that and your selfe 
to an euerlasting and sa- 
cred Memorie. 

Most affectionately desirous 
to be yours : 

Tho. Dekker. 



Reader, 

IT is as ordinarie a custome (for vs that are Bookish) to 
haue a bout with thee, after wee haue done with a 
Patron, as for Schollers (in the noble Science) to play 
at the woodden Rapier and Dagger at the ende of a Maisters 
prize. In doing which we know not vpon what Speeding 
points wee runne, for you (that are Readers) are the most 
desperate and fowlest players in the world, you will strike 
when a mans backe is toward you, and kill him (if you could 
for shame) when he lies vnder your feete. You are able 
(if you haue the tokens of deadly Ignorance, and Boldnes at 
one time vpon you) to breede more infection on in Pauls 
Church-yard, then all the bodies that were buried there in the 
Plague-time, if they had beene left still aboue ground. You 
stand somtimes at a Stationers stal, looking scuruily (like 
Mules champing vpon Thistles) on the face of a new Booke 
bee it neuer so worthy : & goe (as il fauouredly) mewing 
away : But what get you by it ? The Booke-seller euer after 
when you passe by, pinnes on your backes the badge of 
f ooles to make you be laught to scorne, or of sillie Carpers 
to make you be pittied : Conradus Gesner neuer writ of the 
nature of such strange beasts as you are : for where as we 
call you Lectores, Readers, you turne your selues into Lie- 
tores, Executioners, & tormenters. I wold not haue him that 
writes better than I, to Reade this, nor him that cannot doe 
so well, to Raile, or if hee cannot chuse but Raile, let him doe 
it to my face : otherwise (to me being absent) it is done 

5 



6 TO THE READER 

cowardly : for Leonem mortuum mordent etiam Catuli : Cats 

dare scratch Lions by the face when they lie dead, and none 

but Colliers will threaten a Lord Maior when they are f arre 

enough from the Cittie. I haue laide no blockes 

in thy way : if thou findest Strawes, 

(Vade, vale,) cane ne 

titubes. 



The names of the Actors in this 

old Enterlude of Iniquitie. 

i Politike Banke- 
ruptisme. 

2 Lying. 

3 Candle-light. 

4 Sloth. 

5 Apishnesse. 

6 Shauing. 

7 Crueltie. 



Seuen may easily 
play this, but not 
without a Diuell. 



The Induction to the 

Booke. 

IFinde it written in that Booke where no vntruthes 
can be read : in that Booke whose leaues shall ont-last 
sheetes of brasse, and whose lynes leade to eternity : yea 
euen in that Booke that was pend by the best Author of 
the best wisedome, allowed by a Deity, licensed by the 
Omnipotent, and published (in all Languages to all Nations) 
by the greatest, truest, and onely Diuine, thus I find it 
written, that for Sinne, Angels were throwne out of heauen ; 
for Sinne, the first man that euer was made, was made an 
outcast : he was driuen out of his liuing that was left vnto 
him by his Creator : It was a goodlier liuing, than the 
Inheritance of Princes : he lost Paradice by it (he lost his 
house of pleasure :) hee lost Eden by it, a Garden; where 
Winter could neuer haue nipt him with cold, nor Summer 
haue scorcht him with heate. He had there all fruits 
growing to delight his taste, all flowers flourishing to allure 
his eye, all Birds singing to content his eare ; he had more 
than he could desire : yet because he desired more than 
was fit for him, he lost all. For Sinne, all those buildings 
which that greate Worke-master of the world had in sixe 
dayes raysed, were swallowed at the first by waters, and 
shall at last be consumed in fire. How many families hath 
this Leuiathan deuoured ? how many Cities ? how many 
Kingdoms ? Let vs awhile leaue Kingdomes, and enter into 

7 



8 THE INDVCTION 

Cities. Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt to the ground 
with brimstone that dropt in flakes from heauen ; a hot and 
dreadfull vengeance. Ierusalem hath not a stone left vpon 
another of her first glorious foundation : a heauy and 
fearefull downefall. Ierusalem, that was Gods owne dwell- 
ing house ; the Schoole where those Hebrew Lectures, 
which he himselfe read, were taught ; the very Nursery 
where the Prince of Heauen was brought vp; that Ierusalem, 
whose Rulers were Princes, & whose Citizens were like the 
sonnes of Kings : whose Temples were paued with gold, and 
whose houses stood like rowes of tall Cedars ; that Ierusalem 
is now a dezert ; It is vnhallowed, and vntrodden : no 
Monument is left to shew it was a Citty, but only the 
memoriall of the Iewes hard-hartednes, in making away 
their Sauiour : It isjnow a place for barbarous Turks, and 
poore despised Grecians ; it is rather now (for the.abomina- 
tions committed in it) no place at all. 

Let vs hoyst vp more Sayles, and lanch into other Seas, 
till wee come in ken of our owne Countrey. Antwerp (the 
eldest daughter of Brabant) hathfalne in her pride, the Citties 
of rich Burgundy in theyr greatnes. Those seuenteene 
Durch Virgins of Belgia, (that had Kingdomes to theyr 
dowries, and were worthy to be courted by Nations) are now 
no more Virgins : the Souldier hath deflowred them, and 
robd them of theyr Mayden honor : Warre hath still vse of 
their noble bodyes, and discouereth theyr nakedness like 
prostituted Strumpets. Famine hath dryed vp the fresh 
bloud in theyr cheekes, whilst the Pestilence digd vp theyr 
Fields, and turned them into Graues. Neither haue these 
punishments bin layd vpon them onely ; for bloud hath bin 
also drawne of their very next neighbours. France lyes yet 
panting vnder the blowes which her owne Children haue 
giuen her. Thirty yeeres together suffred she her bowels to 
be torne out by those that were bred within them : She was 
full of Princes, and saw them all lye mangled at her feete : 
She was full of people, and saw in one night a hundred 



TO THE BOOKE 9 

thousand massacred in her streetes : her Kings were eaten 
vp by Ciuill warres, and her Subiects by fire and famine. 
O gallant Monarchy, what hard fate hadst thou, that when 
none were left to conquer thee, thou shouldst triumph ouer 
thy selfe ! Thou hast Wynes flowing in thy veynes : but 
thou madest thy selfe druncke with thine owne bloud. The 
English, the Dutch, and; the Spanish, stoode aloofe and 
gaue ayme, whilst thou shotst arrowes vpright, that fell 
vpon thine owne head, and wounded thee to death. Wouldst 
thou (and the rest) know the reason, why your bones haue 
bin bruzed with rods of Iron ? It was, because you haue 
risen in Arch-rebellion against the Supremest Soueraigne : 
You haue bin Tray tors to your Lord, the King of heauen 
and earth, and haue armed your selues to fight against the 
Holy Land. Can the father of the world measure out his 
loue so vnequally, that one people (like to a mans yongest 
child) should be more made of than all the rest, being more 
vnruly than the rest ? O London, thou art great in glory, 
and enuied for they greatnes : thy Towers, thy Temples, 
and thy Pinnacles stand vpon thy head like borders of fine 
gold, thy waters like frindges of siluer hang at the hemmes 
of thy garments. Thou art the goodliest of thy neighbors, 
but the prowdest ; the welthiest, but the most wanton. 
Thou hast all things in thee to make thee fairest, and all 
things in thee to make thee foulest ; for thou art attir'de 
like a Bride, drawing all that looke vpon thee, to be in loue 
with thee, but there is much harlot in thine eyes. Thou 
sitst in thy Gates heated with Wines, and in thy Chambers 
with lust. What miseries haue of late ouertaken thee ? yet 
(like a f oole that laughs when hee is putting on fetters) thou 
hast bin merry in height of thy misfortunes. She that (for 
almost halfe a hundred of yeeres) of thy Nurse g M- Eliza . 
became thy Mother, and layd thee in her beths death - 
bosome, whose head was full of cares for thee, whilst thine 
slept vpon softer pillowes than downe. She that wore 
thee alwayes on her brest as the richest Iewell in her king- 



io THE INDVCTION 

dome, who had continually her eye vpon thee, and her heart 
with thee : whose chaste hand clothed thy Rulers in 
Scarlet, and thy Inhabitants in roabes of peace : euen she 
was taken from thee, when thou wert most in feare to lose 
her : when thou didst tremble (as at an earth-quake) to 
thinke that bloud should runne in thy Channels, that the 
Canon should make way through thy Portcullises, and fire 
rifle thy wealthy houses, then, euen then wert thou left 
full of teares, and becamst an Orphan. But behold, thou 
hadst not sat many howres on the banks of sorrow, but thou 
Kins iames na dst a louing Father that adopted thee to be 
Us corona- his owne : thy mourning turnd presently to 
gladnes, thy terrors into triumphs. Yet, lest 
this fulnesse of ioy should beget in thee a wantonnes, and 
to try how wisely thou couldst take vp affliction, Sicknes 
was sent to breathe her vnholsome ayres into thy 
nosthrils, so that thou, that wert before the only Gallant 
and Minion of the world, hadst in a short time more 
diseases (then a common Harlot hath) hanging vpon thee ; 
thou suddenly becamst the by-talke of neighbors, the scorne 
and contempt of Nations. 

Heere could I make thee weepe thy selfe away into waters, 
*a Booke so °y calling back those sad and dismall houres, 
caiud, writ- wherein thou consumedst almost to nothing 

ten by the 

Author, de- with shrikes and lamentations, in that *Won- 
korror 8 of the derfull yeere, when these miserable calamities 
i6ofr«**» entred in at thy Gates, slaying 30000. and more 
fosytof as thou heldst them in thine armes, but they 
that disease. are f^g^ i n thy memory, and the story of them 
(but halfe read ouer) would strike so coldly to thy heart, 
and lay such heauy sorrow vpon mine (Namque animus 
meminisse horret, luctuque refugit) that I will not be thine 
and my owne tormentor with the memory of them. How 
quickly notwithstanding didst thou forget that beating ? 
The wrath of him that smot thee, was no sooner (in meere 
pitty of thy stripes) appeased, but howrely (againe) thou 



TO THE BOOKB n 

wert in the company of euill doers, euen before thou couldst 
finde ley sure to aske him forgiuenes. 

Buer since that time hath hee winckt at thy errors, and 
suffred thee (though now thou art growne old, and lookest 
very ancient) to goe on still in the follyes of thy youth : 
he hath ten-fold restor'de thy lost sonnes and daughters, 
and such sweete, liuely, fresh colours hath hee put vpon 
thy cheekes, that Kings haue come to behold 
thee, and Princes to delight their eyes with thy land, and ng 
bewty. None of all these fauours (for all this) King of™ 
can draw thee from thy wickednes : Graces Denmarke - 
haue powrd downe out of heauen vpon thee, and thou 
art rich in all things, sauing in goodnes : So that now once 
againe hath he gone about (and but gone about) to call thee 
to the dreadfull Barre of his Iudgement. And no maruaile : 
for whereas other Citties (as glorious as thy selfe,) and other 
people (as deare vnto him as thine) haue in his indignation 
bin quite taken from the face of the earth, for some one 
peculiar Sinne, what hope hast thou to grow vp still in the 
pride of thy strength, gallantnes and health, hauing seuen 
deadly and detestable sinnes lying night by night by thy 
lasciuious sides ? O thou beawtifullest daughter of two 
vnited Monarchies ! from thy womb receiued I my being, 
fro thy brests my nourishment ; yet giue me leaue to tell 
thee, that thou hast seuen Diuels within thee, and till they 
be cleane cast out, the Arrowes of Pestilence will fall vpon 
thee by day, and the hand of the Inuader strike thee by 
night. The Sunne will shine, but not be a comfort to thee, 
and the Moone looke pale with anger, whe she giues thee 
light. Thy Iyouers will disdayne to court thee : thy Temples 
will no more send out Diuine oracles : Iustice will take her 
flight, and dwell else-where ; and that Desolation, which 
now for three yeeres together hath houered round about 
thee, will at last enter, and turne thy Gardens of pleasure, 
into Church-yards ; thy Fields that seru'd thee for walks, 
into Golgotha ; and thy hye built houses, into heapes of dead 



12 THE INDVCTION 

mens Sculs. I call him to witnes, who is all Truth, I call 

the Cittizens of heauen to witnes, who are all spotlesse, 

that I slander thee not, in saying thou nourishest seuen 

Serpents at thy brests, that will destroy thee : let all thy 

Magistrates and thy officers speake for me : let Strangers 

that haue but seene thy behauiour, be my Iudges : let all 

that are gathered vnder thy wings, and those that sleepe 

in thy bosome, giue their verdict vpon me ; yea, try me 

(as thy brabblings are) by all thy Petit and Graund Iurors, 

and if I belye thee, let my Country (when I expire) deny me 

her common blessing, Buriall. Lift vp therefore thy head 

(thou Mother of so many people :) awaken out of thy 

dead and dangerous slumbers, and with a full and fearelesse 

eye behold those seuen Monsters, that with extended 

iawes gape to swallow vp thy memory : for I will into 

so large a field single euery one of them, that thou 

and all the world shall see their vglinesse, for by 

seeing them, thou mayst auoyd them, and by 

auoyding them, be the happiest 

and most renowned 

of Citties. 



Politick Bankruptisme, 

Or, 

The first dayes Triumph 
of the first Sinne. 

IT is a custome in all Countries, when great personages 
are to be entertained, to haue great preparation made 
for them : and because London disdaines to come short 
of any City, either in Magnificence, State, or expences vpon 
such an occasion, solemne order was set downe, and seuen 
seuerall solemne dayes were appointed to receiue these 
seuen Potentates : for they carry the names of Princes on 
the earth, and wheresoe're they inhabit, in a short time 
are they Lords of great Dominions. 

The first dayes Triumphs were spent in meeting and 
conducting Politick Bankruptisme into the Freedome : to 
receiue whom, the Master, the Keepers, and all the Prisoners 
of Ludgate in their best clothes stood most Thcmaner 
officiously readie : for at that Gate, his Deadli- h r ° u w pt f s Z k ' is 
nesse challenges a kind of prerogatiue by the alTta'wfat 
Custome of the Citie, and there loues he most Gate - 
to be let in. The thing they stood vpon, was a Scaffold 
erected for the purpose, stuck round about with a few greene 
boughes (like an Alehouse booth at a Fayre) and couered 
with two or three threed-bare Carpets (for prisoners haue 

13 



14 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

no better) to hide the vnhandsomnes of the Carpenters 
worke : the boughes with the very strong breath that was 
prest ont of the vulgar, withered, & like Autumnian 
leaues dropt to the ground, which made the Broken Gentle- 
man to hasten his progresse the more, and the rather, 
because Lud and his two sonnes stood in a very cold place, 
waiting for his comming. Being vnder the gate, there 
stood one arm'd with an extemporall speech, to giue him 
the onset of his welcome : It was not (I would you should 
well know) the Clarke of a country parish, or the Schoole- 
master of a corporate towne, y* euery yeere has a saying 
to Master Maior, but it was a bird pickt out of purpose 
(amongst the Ludgathians) that had the basest and lowdest 
voice, and was able in a Terme time, for a throat, to giue 
any prisoner great ods for y e box at the grate : this Organ- 
pipe was tunde to rore for the rest, who with a hye sound & 
glib deliuery, made an Encomiastick Paradoxicall Oration 
in praise of a prison, prouing, that captiuity was y e only 
blessing y* could happen to man, and that a Politick 
Bankrupt (because he makes himselfe for euer by his owne 
wit) is able to Hue in any common wealth, and deserues to 
go vp the ladder of promotion, whe hue hundred shallow- 
pated fellowes shall be turnd off. The poore Orator 
hauing made vp his mouth, Bankruptisme gaue him very 
good words, & a handful or two of thanks, vowing he would 
euer Hue in his debt. At which, all the prisoners rending 
the ayre with shouts, the key was turnd, & vp (in state) 
was he led into king Luds house of Bondage, to suruey the 
building, and to take possession of y e lodgings ; where he 
no sooner entered, but a lusty peale of welcomes was shot 
out of Kannes in stead of Canons, and though the powder 
soiamen was exceeding wet, yet off they went thick and 

^h^isse threefold. The day was proclaymed HoHday 
doioris. - m a n ^he war d es ; euery prisoner swore if he 

would stay amongst them, they would take no order about 
their debts, because they would lye by it too ; and for that 



SINNBS OF LONDON 15 

purpose swarmd about him like Bees about Comfit-makers, 
and were drunke, according to all the learned rules of 
Drunkennes, as Vpsy-Freeze, Crambo, Parmizant, &c. the 
pimples of this ranck and f ull-humord ioy rising thus in their 
faces, because they all knew, that though he himselfe was 
broken, the linings of his bags were whole ; & though he 
had no conscience (but a crackt one) yet he had crownes 
y* were sound. None of all these hookes could fasten 
him to them : he was (like their clocks) to strike in more 
places than one, & though he knew many Citizens hated 
him, and that if he were encountred by some of them, it 
might cost him deere, yet vnder so good a protection did 
he go (as he said) because he owed no ill will euen to those 
that most sought his vndoing ; and therefore tooke his 
leaue of the house, with promise, to be with them, or send 
to the once euery quarter at the least. So 
that now, by his wise instructions, if a Puny mlulmen 
were there amongst them, he might learne more cunmng - 
cases, and more quiddits in law within seuen dayes, than 
he does at his Inne in fourteene moneths. 

The Politician beeing thus got into the City, caries 
himself so discreetly, that he steales into the hearts of 
many : In words, is he circumspect : in lookes, graue : in 
attire, ciuill : in diet, temperate : in company His K . 
affable : in his affaires serious : and so cunningly ties - 
dooes he lay on these colours, that in the end he is welcome 
to, and familiar with the best. So that now, there is not 
any one of all the twelue Companies, in which (at one time 
or other) there are not those that haue forsaken their owne 
Hall, to be free of his : yea some of your best Shop-keepers 
hath he enticed to shut themselues vp from the cares and 
busines of the world, to Hue a priuate life ; nay, there is 
not any great and famous Streete in the City, wherein 
there hath not (or now doth not) dwell, some one, or other, 
that hold the points of his Religion. For you must vnder- 
stand, that the Politick Bankrupt is a Harpy that lookes 



16 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

smoothly, a Hyena that enchants subtilly, a Mermaid 
that sings sweetly, and a Cameleon, that can pnt himselfe 
msdisgui- i^o all colours. Sometimes hee's a Puritane, 
*«*• he sweares by nothing but Indeede, or rather 

does not sweare at all, and wrapping his crafty Serpents 
body in the cloake of Religion, he does those acts that would 
become none but a Diuell. Sometimes hee's a Protestant, 
and deales iustly with all men, till he see his time, but in 
the end he turnes Turke. Because you shall beleeue me, I 
will giue you his length by the Scale, and Anatomize his 
body from head to foote. Heere it is. 

Whether he be a Tradesman, or a Marchant, when he 
His policy. first sets himselfe vp, and seekes to get the world 
into his hands, (yet not to go out of y° City) or first talks of 
Countries he neuer saw (vpon the Change) he will be sure to 
keepe his dayes of payments more truly, then Lawyers 
keepe their Termes, or than Executors keepe the last lawes 
that the dead inioyned them to, which euen Infidels them- 
selues will not violate : his hand goes to his head, to his 
meanest customer, (to expresse his humilitie ;) he is vp 
earlier then a Sarieant, and downe later than a Constable, 
to proclaime his thrift. By such artificiall wheeles as 
these, he winds himselfe vp into the height of rich mens 
fauors, till he grow rich himselfe, and when he sees that 
they dare build vpon his credit, knowing the ground to 
be good, he takes vpon him the condition of an Asse, to any 
man that will loade him with gold ; and vseth his credit 
like a Ship freighted with all sorts of Merchandize by 
ventrous Pilots : for after he hath gotten into his hands so 
much of other mens goods or money, as will fill him to the 
vpper deck, away he sayles with it, and politickly runnes 
himselfe on ground, to make the world beleeue he had 
suffered shipwrack. Then flyes he out like an Irish rebell, 
and keepes aloofe, hiding his head, when he cannot hide 
his shame : and though he haue fethers on his back puld 
fro sundry birds, yet to himselfe is he more wretched, 



SINNES OF LONDON 17 

then y e Cuckoo in winter, that dares not be seene. The 
troupes of honest Citizens (his creditors) with whom he 
hath broken league and hath thus defyed, muster themselues 
together, and proclaime open warre : their bands consist 
of tall Yeomen, that serue on foot, comanded by certaine 
Serieants of their bands, who for leading of men, are knowne 
to be of more experiece then the best Iyow-countrey Cap- 
taines. In Ambuscado do these lye day & night, to cut 
off this enemy to the City, if he dare but come downe. 
But the politick Bankrupt barricadoing his Sconce with 
double locks, treble dores, inuincible bolts, and pieces of 
timber 4. or 5. storyes hye, victuals himselfe for a moneth 
or so ; and then in the dead of night, marches vp higher 
into y e country with bag and baggage : parlies then are 
summond ; compositions offred ; a truce is sometimes 
taken for 3. or 4. yeeres ; or (which is more common) a 
dishonorable peace (seeing no other remedy) is on both 
sides concluded, he (like the States) being the only gayner 
by such ciuill warres, whilst the Citizen that is the lender, 
is the loser : Nam crimine ab vno disce omnes, looke how 
much he snatches from one mans sheafe, hee gleanes from 
euery one, if they bee a hundred. 

The victory being thus gotten by basenes & trechery, 
back comes he marching with spred colours againe to the 
City ; aduances in the open streete as he did before ; sels 
the goods of his neighbor before his face without blushing : 
he iets vp and downe in silks wouen out of other mens 
stocks, feeds deliciously vpo other mes purses, rides on his 
ten pound Geldings, in other mens saddles, & is now a new 
man made out of wax, thats to say, out of those bonds, 
whose seales he most dishonestly hath canceld. veluet- 
garded Theeues ! yea-and-by-nay Cheaters ! ciuill, 6 
Graue and Right Worshipfull Couzeners ! 

What a wretchednes is it, by such steps to clime to a 
counterfetted happines ? So to be made for euer, is to be 
vtterly vndone for euer : So for a man to saue himselfe, is 
2 



18 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

to venture his own damnation ; like those that laboring 
by all meanes to escape shipwrack, do afterwards desperatly 
drown themselues. But alas ! how rotten at the bottom 
are buildings thus raised ! How soone do such leases grow 
out of date ! The Third House to them is neuer heard of. 
What slaues then doth mony (so purchast) make of those, 
who by such wayes thinke to find out perfect freedome ? 
But they are most truly miserable in midst of their ioyes : for 
their neighbors scorn them, Strangers poynt at them, good 
men neglect them, the rich man will no more trust them, 
the begger in his rage vpbraydes them. Yet if this were all, 
this all were nothing. O thou that on thy pillow (lyke a 
Spider in his loome) weauest mischeuous nets, beating thy 
braynes, how by casting downe others, to rayse vp thy 
selfe ! 

Thou Politick Bankrupt, poore rich man, thou ill-painted 
foole, when thou art to lye in thy last Inne (thy loathsome 
graue) how heauy a loade will thy wealth bee to thy weake 
corrupted Conscience ! those heapes of Siluer, in telling of 
which thou hast worne out thy fingers ends, will be a passing 
bell, tolling in thine eare, and calling thee to a fearefull 
Audit. Thou canst not dispose of thy riches, but the naming 
of euery parcell will strike to thy heart, worse then the 
pangs of thy departure : thy last will, at the last day, will 
be an Inditement to cast thee ; for thou art guilty of 
offending those two lawes (enacted in the vpper House of 
heauen) which directly forbid thee to steale, or to couet 
thy neighbors goods. 

But this is not all neither ; for thou lyest on thy bed 
of death, and art not carde for : thou goest out of the 
world, and art not lamented : thou art put into the last 
linnen y* euer thou shalt weare, (thy winding-sheete) with 
reproch, and art sent into thy Graue with curses : he that 
makes thy Funerall Sermon, dares not speake well of thee, 
because he is asham'd to belye the dead : and vpon so 
hatefull a fyle doest thou hang the records of thy life, that 



SINNES OF LONDON 19 

euen when the wormes haue pickt thee to the bare bones , 
those that goe ouer thee, will set vpon thee no Epitaph but 
this, Here lyes a knaue. 

Alack ! this is not the worst neither : thy Wife being in 
the heate of her youth, in the pride of her beawty, and in 
all the brauery of a rich London Widow, flyes from her 
nest (where she was thus rledg'd before her time) the City, 
to shake off the imputation of a Bankrupts Wife, and per- 
haps marries with some Gallat : thy bags then are emptied, 
to hold him vp in riots : those hundreds, which thou 
subtilly tookst vp vpon thy bonds, do sinfully serue him 
to pay Tauerne bills, and what by knauery thou gotst from 
honest men, is as villanously spent vpon Pandars and 
Whores : thy Widow being thus brought to a low ebbe, 
grows desperat : curses her birth, her life, her fortunes, 
yea perhaps curses thee, when thou art in thy euerlasting 
sleepe, her conscience perswading strongly, that she is 
punished from aboue, for thy faults : and being poore, 
, f riendlesse, comfortlesse, she findes no meanes to raise her 
selfe, but by Falling, and therfore growes to be a common 
woma. Doth not y e thought of this torment thee ? She 
Hues basely by the abuse of that body, to maintaine which 
in costly garments, thou didst wrong to thine owne soule : 
nay more to afflict thee, thy children are ready to beg 
their bread in that very place, where the father hath sat 
at his dore in purple, and at his boord like Diues, surfeting 
on those dishes which were earnd by the sweat of other 
mens browes. The infortunate Marchant, whose estate 
is swallowed vp by the mercilesse Seas, and the prouident 
Trades-man, whom riotous Seruants at home, or hard- 
hearted debters abroad vndermine and ouerthrow, blotting 
them with the name of Bankrupts, deserue to be pitied 
and relieued, when thou that hast cozend euen thine owne 
Brother of his Birth-right, art laught at, and not remembred, 
but in scorne, when thou art plagued in thy Generation. 

Be wise therefore, you Graue, and wealthy Cittizens ; play 



20 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

with these Whales of the Sea, till you escape them that are 
deuourers of your Merchants ; hunt these English Wolues 
to death, and rid the land of them : for these are the Rats 
that eate vp the prouision of the people : these are the 
Grashoppers of Egypt, that spoyle the Corne-fields of the 
Husbandman and the rich mans Vineyards : they will 
haue poore Naboths piece of ground from him, though they 
eate a piece of his heart for it. These are indeede (and 
none but these) the Forreners that Hue without the f reedome 
of your City, better than you within it ; they Hue without 
the freedome of honesty, of conscience, and of christian- 
itie. Ten dicing-houses cheate not yong Gentlemen of so 
much mony in a yeare, as these do you in a moneth. The 
theefe that dyes at Tyburne for a robbery, is not halfe so 
dangerous a weede in a Common-wealth, as the Politick 
Bankrupt, I would there were a Derick to hang vp him too. 

The Russians haue an excellent custome : they beate 
them on the shinnes, that haue mony, and wiU not pay 
their debts ; if that law were well cudgeld from thence 
into England, Barbar-Surgeons might in a few yeeres build 
vp a Hall for their Company, larger then Powles, only 
with the cure of Bankrupt broken-shinnes. 

I would faine see a prize set vp, that the welted Vsurer, 
and the poHtick Bankrupt might rayle one against another 
for it : o, it would beget a riming Comedy. The ChaUenge 
of the Germayne against all the Masters of the Noble Science, 
would not bring in a quarter of the money : for there is not 
halfe so much loue betweene the Iron and the Loadestone, 
as there is mortall hate betweene those two Furies. The 
Vsurer Hues by the lechery of mony, and is Bawd to his 
owne bags, taking a fee, that they may ingender. The 
Politick Bankrupt Hues by the gelding of bags of Siluer. 
The Vsurer puts out a hundred poud to breede, and lets 
it run in a good pasture (thats to say, in the lands that are 
mortgag'd for it) till it grow great with Foale, and bring 
forth ten pound more. But the PoHtick Bankrupt playes 



SINNES OF LONDON 21 

the Alchimist, and hauing taken a hundred pound to multi- 
ply it, he keepes a puffing and a blowing, as if he would 
fetch the Philosophers stone out of it, yet melts your 
hundred pound so long in his Crusibles, till at length he 
either melt it cleane away, or (at the least) makes him that 
lends it thinke good, if euery hundred bring him home fiue, 
with Principall and Interest. 

You may behold now in this Perspectiue piece which I 
haue drawne before you, how deadly and dangerous an 
enemy to the State this Politick Bankntptisme hath bin, 
& still is : It hath bin long enough in the Citty, and for any 
thing I see, makes no great haste to get out. His triumphs 
haue bin great, his entertainement rich and magnificent. 
He purposes to lye heere as Lucifers Legiar : let him there- 
fore alone in his lodging (in what part of the Citty soeuer 
it be) tossed and turmoyled with godlesse slumbers, and 
let vs take vp a standing neere some other Gate, to behold 
the Entrance of the Second Sinne : but before you go, 
looke vpo the Chariot that this First is drawne in, and take 
speciall note of all his Attendants. 

The habit, the qualities and complexion of this Embas- 
sador sent from Hell, are set downe before. He rides in a 
Chariot drawne vpon three wheeles, that run fastest away, 
when they beare the greatest loades. The bewty of the 
Chariot is all in-layd work, cunningly & artificially wrought, 
but yet so strangely, and of so many seuerall-fashioned 
pieces, (none like another) that a sound wit would mistrust 
they had bin stolne from sundry worke-men. By this 
prowd Counterfet ran two Pages; on the left side Con- 
science, raggedly attirde, ill-fac'd, ill-coloured, and mis- 
shapen in body. On the right side runs Beggery, who if 
he out-liue him, goes to serue his children. Hipocrisy 
driues the Chariot, hauing a couple of fat well-coloured and 
lusty Coach-horses to the eye, cald Couetousnes and Cose- 
nage, but full of diseases, & rotten about the heart. Behind 
him follow a crowd of Trades-men, and Merchants, euery 



22 THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 

one of them holding either a Shopbooke, or an Obligation 
in his hand, their seruants, wiues and children strawing 
the way before him with curses, but he carelesly runnes 
ouer the one, and out-rides the other ; at the tayle of whom 
(like the Pioners of an Army) march troopewise, and with- 
out any Drum struck vp, because the Leader can abide 
no noyse, a company of old expert Sarieants, bold Yeomen, 
hungry Baylifs, and other braue Martiall men, who because 
(like the Switzers) they are well payd, are still in Action, and 
oftentimes haue the enemy in execution ; following the 
heeles of this Citty-Conqueror, so close, not for any loue 
they owe him, but only (as all those that follow great men 
do) to get mony by him. We will leaue them lying in 
Ambush, or holding their Courts of Gard, and take a muster 
of our next Regiment. 



2. Lying. 

O, 

The second dayes Triumph. 

WHen it came to the eares of the Sinfull Syna- 
gogue, how the rich lew of London, (Barabbas 
Bankruptisme) their brother, was receyued into 
the Citty, and what a lusty Reueler he was become, the rest 
of the same Progeny (being 6. in number) vowd to ryde 
thither in their greatest State, and that euery one should 
challenge to himselfe (if he could enter) a seuerall day of 
Tryumph ; for so he might doe by their owne Customes. 
Another therefore of the Broode, being presently aptly 
accoustred, and armed Cap-a-pe, with all furniture fit for 
such an Inuader, sets forward the very next morning, and 
arriu'de at one of the Gates, before any Porters eyes were 
vnglewd. To knocke, hee thought it no policy, because such 
fellowes are commonly most churlish, when they are most 
intreated and are key-cold in their comming downe to 
Strangers, except they be brybed : to stay there with such a 
confusion of faces round about him, till light should betray 
him, might call his Arriuall, being strange and hidden, into 
question ; besides, he durst not send any Spy he had, 
to listen what newes went amongst the people, and whether 
any preparation were made for him, or that they did 
expect his approche, because indeede there was not any one 
of the Damned Crewe that followed his tayle, whom he 
durst trust for a true word. He resolues therefore to make 

23 



24 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

his entrance, not by the sword, but by some sleyght, 
what storme or f ayre weather soeuer should happen : And 
for that purpose, taking asunder his Charriot, (for it stood 
altogether like a Germane clock, or an English lack or 
Turne-spit, vpon skrewes and vices) he scatters his Troope 
vpon the fields and bye-way, into small companies, as if 
they had bene Irish beggers ; till at last espying certayne 
Colliers with Carts most sinfully loaden, for the Citty, and 
behind them certayne light Country Horse-women ryding 
to the Markets, hee mingled his Footemen carelesly 
amongst these, and by this Stratagem of Coales, brauely 
thorow Moore-gate, got within the walles ; where marching 
not like a plodding Grasyer with his Drones before him, but 
like a Citty-Captayne, with a Company (as pert as Tay lours 
at a wedding) close at his heeles, (because nowe they knewe 
they were out of f eare) hee musters together all the Hackney- 
men and Horse-coursers in and about Colman-streete. 

No sooner had these Sonnes and Heyres vnto Horse- 
shooes, got him into their eyes, but they wept for ioy to 
behold him ; yet in the ende, putting vp their teares into 
bottles of Hay, which they held vnder their armes, and 
wyping their slubberd cheekes with wispes of cleane Strawe, 
(prouyded for the nonce) they harnessed the Grand Signiors 
Caroach, mounted his Cauallery vpon Curtals, and so sent 
him most pompously (like a new elected Dutch Burgo- 
master) into the Citty. 

He was lookt vpon strangely by all whom he met, for at 
the first, few or none knew him, few followed him, few 
bid him welcome : But after hee had spent heere a very 
little peece of time, after it was voyc'd that Monsieur 
Mendax came to dwell amongst them, and had brought 
with him all sorts of politick falshood and lying, what a 
number of Men, Women and Children fell presently in loue 
with him ! There was of euery Trade in the City, and of 
euery profession some, that instantly were dealers with 
him : For you must note, that in a State so multitudinous, 



SINNES OF LONDON 25 

where so many flocks of people must be fed, it is impossible 
to haue some Trades to stand, if they should not Lye. 

How quickly after the Art of Lying was once publiquely 
profest, were false Weights and false Measures inuented ! 
and they haue since done as much hurt to the inhabitants 
of Cities, as the inuention of Gunnes hath done to their 
walles : for though a Lye haue but short legs (like a Dwarf es) 
yet it goes farre in a little time, Et crescit eundo, and at last 
prooues a tall fellow : the reason is, that Truth had euer 
but one Father, but Lyes are a thousand mens Bastards, 
and are begotten euery where. 

Looke vp then ( Thou thy Country es Darling,) and behold 
what a diuelish Inmate thou hast intertained. The Genea- 
logy of Truth is well knowne, for she was borne in Heauen, 
and dwels in Heauen : Falshood then and Lying must of 
necessity come out of that hot Country of Hell, from the 
line of Diuels : for those two are as opposite, as day and 
darkenes. What an vngracious Generation wilt thou 
mingle with thine, if thou draw not this from thee : What 
a number of vnhappy and cursed childre will be left vpo 
thy hand ? for Lying is Father to Falshood, and Grandsire 
to Periury : Frawd (with two faces) is his Daughter, a 
very Monster : Treason (with haires like Snakes) is his 
kinseman ; a very Fury ! how art thou inclos'd with 
danger ? The Lye first deceiues thee, and to shoote the 
deceit off cleanly, an oath (like an Arrow) is drawne to the 
head, and that hits the marke. If a Lye, after it is molded, 
be not smooth enough, there is no instrumet to burnish it, 
but an oath : Swearing giues it cullor, & a bright complexion. 
So that Oathes are Crutches, vpon whych Lyes (like lame 
soldiers) go, & neede no other pasport. little oathes 
are able to beare vp great lyes : but great Lyes are able to 
beate down great Families : For oathes are wounds that a 
man stabs into himselfe, yea, they are burning words that 
consume those who kindle them. 

What fooles then are thy Buyers and Sellers to be abused 



26 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

by such hell-hounds ? Swearing and Forswearing put into 
their hands perhaps the gaines of a little Siluer, but like 
those pieces which Iudas receiued, they are their destruc- 
tion. Welth so gotten, is like a tree set in the depth of 
winter, it prospers not. 

But is it possible (Thou leader of so great a Kingdome) that 
heretofore so many bonfires of mens bodies should be made 
before thee in the good quarrell of Trueth ? and that now 
thou shouldst take part with her enemy ? Haue so many 
Triple-pointed darts of Treason bin shot at the heads of 
thy Princes, because they would not take Truth out of thy 
Temples, and art thou now in League with false Witches 
y* would kill thee ? Thou art no Traueler, the habit of 
Lying therefore will not become thee, cast if off. 

He that giues a soldier the Lye, lookes to receiue the 
stab : but what danger does he run vpon, that giues a 
whole City the Lye ? yet must I venture to giue it thee. 
Let me tell thee then, that Thou doest Lye with Pride, and 
though thou art not so gawdy, yet art thou more costly 
in attiring thy selfe than the Court, because Pride is the 
Queene of Sinnes, thou hast chosen her to be thy Concubine, 
and hast begotten many base Sonnes and Daughters vpon 
her body, as Vainglory, Curiosity, Disobedience, Opinion, 
Disdaine, &c. Pride, by thy Lying with her, is growne 
impudent : She is now a common Harlot, and euery one 
hath vse of her body. The Taylor calls her his Lemman, 
he hath often got her great with child of Phantasticallity 
and Fashions, who no sooner came into the world, but the 
fairest Wiues of thy Tennants snatcht them vp into their 
armes, layd them in their laps and to their brests, and after 
they had plaid with them their pleasure, into the country 
were those two children (of the Taylors) sent to be nurst 
vp, so that they Hue sometimes there, but euer and anon 
with thee. 

Thou doest likewise Lye with Vsury : how often hast thou 
bin found in bed with her ! How often hath she bin 



SINNES OF LONDON 27 

openly disgraced at the Crosse for a Strumpet ! yet still 
doest thou keepe her company, and art not ashamed of it, 
because you commit Sinne together, euen in those houses 
that haue paynted posts standing at the Gates. What 
vngodly brats and kindred hath she brought thee ? for 
vpon Vsury hast thou begotten Extortion, (a strong, but an 
vnmannerly child,) Hardnes of heart, a very murderer, and 
Bad Conscience, who is so vnruly, that he seemes to be sent 
vnto thee, to be thy euerlasting paine. Then hath she 
Sonnes in law, and they are all Scriueners : those Scriueners 
haue base sonnes, and they are all common Brokers ; those 
Brokers likewise send a number into the world, & they are 
all Common Theeues. 

All of these may easily giue Armes : for they fetch their 
discent from hell, where are as many Gentlemen, as in any 
one place, in any kingdome. 

Thou doost lye with sundrie others, and committest 
strange whoredomes, which by vse and boldnesse grow so 
common, that they seeme to be no whoredomes at all, Yet 
thine owne abhominations would not appeare so vilely, 
but that thou makest thy buildings a Brothelry to others : 
for thou sufferest Religion to lye with Hipocrisie : Charity 
to lye with Ostentation : Friendship to lye with Hollow- 
heartednes : the Churle to lye with Simony : Iustice to 
lye with Bribery, and last of all, Conscience to lye with 
euerie one, So that now shee is full of diseases : But thou 
knowest the medicine for al these Feauers that shake thee : 
be therfore to thy selfe thine owne Phisitian, and by strong 
Pilles purge away this second infection that is breeding 
vpon thee, before it strike to the heart. 

Falshood and Lying thus haue had their day, and like 
Almanackes of the last yeare, are now gon out : let vs follow 
them a step or two farther to see how they ride, and then 
(if we can) leaue them, for I perceiue it growes late, because 
Candle-light (who is next to enter vpo the stage) is making 
himself ready to act his Comicall Scenes. The Chariot 



28 THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 

then that Lying is drawne in, is made al of whetstones ; 
Wantonnes and enil custome are his Horses : a Foole is the 
Coachman that driues them : a conple of swearing Fencers 
sometimes leade the Horses by the reynes, and sometimes 
flourish before them to make roome. Worshipfully is this 
Lord of Limbo attended, for Knights theselues follow close 
at his heeles ; Mary they are not Post and Poyre- Knightes 
but one of the Post. Amongst whose traine is shuffled in 
a company of scambling ignorant Petti-foggars, leane 
Knaues and hungrie, for they Hue vpon nothing but the 
scraps of the Law, and heere and there (like a Prune in 
White-broth) is stucke a spruice but a meere prating 
vnpractised Lawyers Clarke all in blacke. At the tayle of 
all (when this goodly Pageant is passed by) follow a crowde 
of euerie trade some, amongst whome least we be smothered, 
and bee taken to bee of the same list, let vs strike downe 
my way. 

Nanif) odi profanu Valgus. 



3- Candle-light. 
OR, 
The Nocturnal] Tryumph. 

O Candle-light ! and art thou one of the Cursed 
Crew ? hast thou bin set at the Table of Princes, & 
Noblemen ? haue all sortes of people doone reuer- 
ence vnto thee, and stood bare so soone as euer they haue 
seene thee ? haue Theeues, Traytors, and Murderers been 
arTraide to come in thy presence, because they knewe thee 
iust, and that thou wouldest discouer them ? And art thou 
now a harborer of all kindes of Vices ? nay, doost thou 
play the capitall Vice thy selfe ? 

Hast thou had so many learned Lectures read before thee, 
& is the light of thy Vnder standing now cleane put out, 
and haue so many profound schollers profited by thee ? 
hast thou doone such good to Vniuersities, beene such a 
guide to the I,ame, and seene the dooing of so many good 
workes, yet doest thou now looke dimly, and with a dull 
eye vpon al Goodnes ? What comfort haue sickmen taken 
(in weary and irkesome nights) but onely in thee ? thou hast 
been their Phisition and Apothecary, and when the rellish 
of nothing could please them, the very shadow of thee 
hath beene to them a restoritiue Consolation. The Nurse 
hath stilled her wayward Infant, shewing it but to thee : 
What gladnes hast thou put into Mariners bosomes, when 
thou hast met them on the Sea ? What Ioy into the faint 
and benighted Trauailer when he has met thee on the land? 

29 



30 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

How many poore Handy-crajtes men by Thee haue earned 
the best part of their luring ? And art thou now become a 
Companion for Drunkards, for leachers, and for prodi- 
galles ? Art thou turnd Reprobate ? thou wilt burne for 
it in hell, And so odious is this thy Apostacy, and hiding 
thy self fro y e light of the truth, y* at thy death & going out 
of the world, euen they y* loue thee best, wil tread thee 
vnder their feete : yea I y* haue thus plaid the Herrald, 
& proclaimd thy good parts, wil now play the Cryer 
and cal thee into open court, to arraigne thee for thy 
misdemeanors. 

Let the world therefore vnderstand, that this Tallow- 
facde Gentleman (cald Candle-light) so soone as euer the 
Sunne was gon out of sight, and that darkenes like a thief 
out of a hedge crept vpon the earth, sweate till hee dropt 
agen, with bustling to come into the Cittie. For hauing no 
more but one onely eye (and that fierie red with drinking & 
sitting vp late) he was ashamed to be seene by day, know- 
ing he should be laught to scorne, and hooted at. He 
makes his entrance therefore at Aldersgate of set purpose, 
for though the streete be faire and spatious, yet few lightes 
in mistie euenings, vsing there to thrust out their golde 
heads he thought that the aptest circle for him to be 
raised in, because there his Glittering would make greatest 
show. 

What expectation was there of his coming ? setting 
aside y e bonfiers, there is not more triumphing on Mid- 
sommer night. No sooner was he aduaunced vp into the 
moste famous Streetes, but a number of shops for ioy 
beganne to shut in : Mercers rolde vp their silkes and 
Veluets : the Goldsmithes drew backe their Plate, & all 
the Citty lookt like a priuate Play-house, when the windowes 
are clapt downe, as if some Nocturnal, or dismall Tragedy 
were presently to be acted before all the Trades-men. 
But Caualiero Candle-light came for no such solemnitie : 
No he had other Crackers in hand to which hee watcht 



SINNES OF LONDON 31 

but his houre to giue fire. Scarce was his entrance blown 
abroad, but the Banckrupt, the Fellon, and all that owed 
any mony, and for feare of arrests, or Iustices warrants, 
had like so many Snayles kept their houses ouer their heads 
al the day before, began now to creep out of their shels, & 
to stalke vp & down the streets as vprightly, & with as 
proud a gate as if they meant to knock against the starres 
with the crownes of their heads. 

The damask-coated Cittizen, that sat in his shop both 
forenoone and afternoone, and lookt more sowerly on his 
poore neighbors, then if he had drunke a quart of Vineger 
at a draught, sneakes out of his owne doores, and slips into 
a Tauerne, where either alone, or with some other that 
battles their money together, they so plye themselues with 
penny pots, which (like small-shot) goe off, powring into 
their fat paunches, that at length they haue not an eye to 
see withall, not a good legge to stand vpon. In which pickle 
if anye of them happen to be iustled downe by a post 
(that in spite of them will take the wall) and so reeles them 
into the kennell, who takes them vp or leades them home ? 
who has them to bed, and with a pillow smothes this stealing 
so of good liquor, but that brazen-face Candle-light ? Nay 
more, hee intices their verie Prentices to make their 
desperate sallyes out, & quicke retyres in (contrarie to the 
Oath of their Indentures) which are seuen yeares a swearing, 
onely for their Pintes, and away. 

Tush, this is nothing : yong shopkeepers that haue but 
newly ventured vpon the pikes of marriage, who are euery 
houre shewing their wares to their Customers, plying their 
businesse harder all day then Vulcan does his Anuile, and 
seeme better husbands than Fidlers that scrape for a poore 
liuing both day and night, yet euen these if they can but 
get Candle-light, to sit vp all night with them in any house 
of Reckning (thats to say in a Tauerne) they fall roundly to 
play the London prize, and thats at three seuerall weapons, 
Drinking, Dauncing, & Dicing, Their wiues lying all that 



32 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

time in their beds sighing like widowes, which is lamentable : 
the giddie-braind husbads wasting the portions they had 
with them , which lost once, they are (like Maiden-heades) 
neuer recouerable. Or which is worse, this going a Bat- 
fowling a nights, beeing noted by some wise yong-man or 
other, that knowes how to handle such cases, the bush 
is beaten for them at home, whilest they catch the bird 
abroade, but what bird is it ? the Woodcocke. 

Neuer did any Cittie pocket vp such wrong at the hands 
of one, ouer whom she is so iealous, and so tender, that in 
Winter nights if he be but missing, and hide himself e in the 
darke, I know not how many Beadles are sent vp and downe 
the streetes to crie him : yet you see, there is more cause 
she should send out to curse him. For what Villanies 
are not abroad so long as Candle-light is stirring ? The 
Seruing-man dare then walke with his wench : the Priuate 
Puncke (otherwise called one that boords in London) 
who like a Pigeon sits billing all day within doores, and 
feares to steppe ouer the thresholde, does then walke the 
round till midnight, after she hath beene swaggering 
amongst pottle pots and Vintners boyes. Nay, the sober 
Perpetuana suited Puritane, that dares not (so much as 
by Moone-light) come neere the Suburb-shadow of a house, 
where they set stewed Prunes befor you, raps as boldly 
at the hatch, when he knowes Candle-light is within, as if 
he were a new chosen Constable. When al doores are lockt 
vp, when no eyes are open, when birds sit silent in bushes, 
and beasts lie sleeping vnder hedges, when no creature can 
be smelt to be vp but they that may be smelt euery night 
a streets length ere you come at them, euen then doth this 
Ignis fatuus {Candle-light) walke like a Fire-drake into 
sundrie corners. If you will not beleeue this, shoote but 
your eye through the Iron grates into the Cellers of Vint- 
ners, there you shall see him hold his necke in a Iin, made 
of a clift hoope-sticke, to throttle him from telling tales, 
whilest they most abhominably iumble together all the 



SINNES OF LONDON 33 

papisticall drinkes that are brought from beyond-sea : 
the poore wines are rackt and made to confesse anie thing : 
the Spanish & the French meeting both in the bottome of 
the Cellar, conspire together in their cups, to lay the 
Englishman (if he euer come into their company) vnder 
the boord. 

To be short, such strange mad musick doe they play vpon 
their Sacke-buttes, that if Candle-light beeing ouer come 
with the steeme of newe sweete Wines, when they are at 
worke, shoulde not tell them tis time to goe to bedde, they 
would make all the Hogges-heads that vse to come to 
the house, to daunce the Cannaries till they reeld againe. 
When the Grape-mongers and hee are parted, hee walkes 
vp and downe the streetes squiring olde Midwiues to anie 
house, (verie secretly) where any Bastards are to be brought 
into the worlde. From them, (about the houre when 
Spirits walke, and Cats goe a gossipping) hee visits the 
Watch, where creeping into the Beadles Cothouse (which 
standes betweene his legges, that are lapt rounde about 
with peeces of Rugge, as if he had newe strucke off Shackles) 
and seeing the Watch-men to nodde at him, hee hydes 
himselfe presently, (knowing the token) vnder the flappe 
of a gowne, and teaches them (by instinct) howe to steale 
nappes into their heades, because hee sees all their 
Cloakes haue not one good nappe vppon them : and vppon 
his warrant snort they so lowde, that to those Night-walkers 
(whose wittes are vp so late) it serues as a Watch-worde to 
keepe out of the reach of their browne Billes : by which 
meanes they neuer come to aunswere the matter before 
maister Constable, and the Bench vppon which his men 
(that shoulde watch) doe sitte : so that the Counters are 
cheated of Prisoners, to the great dammage of those that 
shoulde haue their mornings draught out of the Garnish. 

O Candle-light, Candle-light ! to howe manie costly 
Sacke-possets, and reare Banquets hast thou beene inuited 
by Prentices and Kitchen-maidens ? When the Bell-man 
3 



34 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

for anger to spie (such a Purloyner of Cittizens goods) so 
many, hath bounced at the doore like a madde man, At 
which (as if Robin Good-fellow had beene coniur'd vp 
amongst them) the Wenches haue falne into the handes of 
the Greene-sicknesse, and the yong fellowes into colde 
Agues, with verie f eare least their maister (like olde Ieronimo 
and Isabella his wife after him) starting out of his naked 
bed should come downe (with a Weapon in his hande) and 
this in his mouth : What out-cry es 'pull vs from our naked 
bedde ? Who calles ? &c. as the Players can tell you. O 
Candle-light, howe hast thou stuncke then, when they haue 
popt thee out of their companye : howe hast thou taken 
it in snuffe, when thou hast beene smelt out especially the 
maister of the house exclayming, that by day that deede 
of darknesse had not beene. One Vennie more with thee, 
and then I haue done. 

How many lips haue beene worne out with kissing at the 
street doore, or in y e entry (in a winking blind euening ?) 
how many odde matches and vneuen manages haue been 
made there betweene young Prentises and there maisters 
daughters, whilest thou (O Candle-light) hast stood watching 
at the staires heade, that none could come stealing downe 
by thee, but they must bee seene ? 

It appeares by these articles put in against thee, that 
thou art partly a Bawd to diuerse loose sinnes, and partly 
a Coozener : for if any in the Cittie haue badde wares 
lying deade vppon their handes, thou art better than Aqua 
vitce to fetch life into them, and to sende them packing. 
Thou shalt therefore bee taken out of thy proude Chariot, 
and bee carted : yet first will wee see what workmanship, 
and what stuffe it is made of, to the intent that if it bee 
not daungerous for a Cittie to keepe anie Relique belonging 
to such a crooked Saint, It may bee hung vp as a monu- 
ment to shewe with what dishonour thou wert driuen out 
of so noble a lodging, to deface whose buildings thou hast 
beene so enuious, that when thou hast beene left alone by 



SINNES OF LONDON 35 

any thing that woulde take fire, thou hast burnt to the 
ground many of her goodlyest houses. 

Candle-lights Coach is made all of Home, shauen as thin 
as Changelinges are. It is drawne (with ease) by two 
Rats : the Coachman is a Chaundler, who so sweats with 
yearking them, that he drops tallowe, and that feedes them 
as prouender : yet are the lashes that hee giues the squeak- 
ing V ermine more deadly to them then al the Ratsbane 
in Bucklersburie. Painefulnesse and Studdy are his two 
I^ackeyes and run by him : Darknesse, Conspiracy, Oppor- 
tunities Stratagems and Feare, are his attendants : hee's 
sued vnto by Diggars in Mines, Grauers, Schollers, Mariners, 
Nurses, Drunkards, Vnthriftes and shrode Husbands : hee 
destroyes that which feedes him, & therefore Ingratitude 
comes behinde all this, drilling them before her. The next 
Diuel that is to be commaunded vp, is a very lazie one, and 
will be long in rising : let vs therefore vnbinde this, and 
fall to other Charmes. 



4- Sloth : 
OR 
The fourth dayes Tryumph. 

MAn (doubtlesse) was not created to bee an idle 
fellow, for then he should bee Gods Vagabond : 
he was made for other purpose then to be euer 
eating as swine : euer sleeping as Dormise : euer dumb as 
fishes in the Sea, or euer prating to no purpose, as birdes 
of the ayre : he was not set in this Vniuersall Orchard 
to stand still as a Tree, and so to bee cut downe, but 
to be cut downe if he should stand still. And to haue 
him remember this, he carries certaine Watches with 
Larums about him, that are euer striking : for all the 
Enginous Wheeles of the Soule are continually going : 
though the body lye neuer so fast bownde in Slumbers, 
the imagination runnes too and fro, the phantasie flyes 
round about, the vitall Spirits walke vp and downe, yea 
the very pulses shew actiuitie, and their hammers are 
still beating, so that euen in his very dreames, it is 
whispered in his eare that hee must bee dooing some- 
thing. 

If hee had not these prompters at his elbows, yet euerie 
member of his body (if it could speake) would chide him if 
they were put to no vse, cosidering what noble workman- 
ship is bestowed vpon them. For man no sooner gets vpon 
his legges, but they are made so that either hee may run 
or goe : when he is weary, they can giue him ease by 

36 



THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 37 

stading still, if he will not stand, the Knees seme like 
Hindges to bow vp and downe, and to let him kneele. His 
armes haue artificiall cordes and stringes, which shorten 
or flye out to their length at pleasure : They winde about 
the bodye like a siluer Girdle, and being held out before, 
are weapos to defend it : at the end of the armes, are two 
beautiful Mathematicall Instruments, with hue seuerall 
motions in each of them, and thirtie other mouing Engines, 
by which they stirre both. His head likewise standes 
vppon three Skrewes, the one is directly forward to teach 
him Prouidence, the other two are on eather side one, to 
arme him with Circumspection : How busie are both the 
eyes, to keepe danger from him euerie way. 

But admit hee had none of these Wonderfull Volumes to 
reade ouer, yet hee sees the clowdes alwaies working : the 
waters euer labouring : the earth continuallye bringing 
foorth : he sees the Sunne haue a hye colour with taking 
paines for the day. The Moone pale and sickly, with sitting 
vp for the night : the Stars mustring their armyes together 
to guard the Moone. All of them, and all that is in the 
world, seruing as Schoolemaisters, & the world it selfe as 
an Academ to bring vp man in knowledge, and to put him 
still into action. 

How then dares this nastie, and loathsome sin of Sloth 
venture into a Citie amongst so many people ? who doth 
he hope wil giue him entertainmet ? what lodging (thinks 
he) can be taine vp, where he & his heauy-headed copany 
may take their afternoones nap soundly ? for in euery 
street, carts and Coaches make such a thundring as if the 
world ranne vpon wheeles : at euerie corner, men, women, 
and children meete in such shoales, that postes are sette vp 
of purpose to strengthen the houses, least with iustling one 
another they should shoulder them downe. Besides, 
hammers are beating in one place, Tubs hooping in another, 
Pots clincking in a third, water-tankards running at tilt in a 
fourth : heere are Porters sweating vnder burdens, there 



38 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

Marchants-men bearing bags of money, Chapmen (as if 
they were at Leape-frog) skippe out of one shop into 
another : Tradesmen (as if they were daticing Galliards) 
are lusty at legges and neuer stand still : all are as busie 
as countrie Atturneyes at an Assises : how then can 
Idlenes thinke to inhabit heere ? 

Yet the Worship full Sir, (that leades a Gentlemans life, 
and dooth nothing) though he comes but slowly on (as if 
hee trodde a French March) yet hee comes and with a 
great trayne at his tayle, as if the countrie had brought 
vp some Fellon to one of our Gayles, So is he conuaide by 
nine or tenne drowsie Malt-men, that lye nodding ouer 
their Sackes, and euen a moste sleepie and still Triumph 
begins his entrance at Bishopsgate. 

An armie of substantiall Housholders (moste of them 
liuing by the hardnesse of the hand) came in Battaile 
array, with spred Banners, bearing the Armes of their 
seuerall occupations to meete this Cowardly Generall and 
to beate him backe. But hee sommoning a parlee, ham- 
mered out such a strong Oration in praise of Ease, that they 
all strucke vp their Drums, flung vp their Round-Cappes, 
and (as if it had beene another William the Conqueror) came 
marching in with him and lodged him in the quietest 
streete in the Cittie, for so his Lazinesse requested. 

Hee then presently gaue licenses to all the Vintners, to 
keepe open house, and to emptye their Hogsheades to all 
commers, who did so, dying their grates into a drunkards 
blush (to make them knowne from the Grates of a prison) 
least customers should reele away from them, and hanging 
out new bushes, that if men at their going out, could not 
see the signe, yet they might not loose themselues in the 
bush. He likewise gaue order that dicing-houses, and 
bowling alleyes should be erected, whereupon a number of 
poore handy-crafts-men, that before wrought night and day, 
made stocks to theselues of ten groates, & crowns a peece, 
and what by Betting, Lurches, Rubbers and such tricks, 



SINNES OF LONDON 39 

they neuer tooke care for a good daies worke afterwards. 
For as Letchery is patron of al your Suburb Colledges, and 
sets vp Vaulting-houses, and Daunsing-Schooles : and as 
Drunkennesse when it least can stand, does best hold vp 
Alehouses, So Sloth is a founder of the Almeshouses first 
mentioned, & is a good Benefactor to these last. 

The Players prayed for his comming, they lost nothing by 
it, the comming in of tenne Embassadors was neuer so 
sweete to them, as this our sinne was : their houses smoakt 
euerye after noone with Stinkards, who were so glewed 
together in crowdes with the Steames of strong breath, 
that when they came foorth, their faces lookt as if they had 
beene perboylde : And this Comicall Tearme-time they 
hoped for, at the least all the summer, because tis giuen 
out that Sloth himselfe will come, and sit in the two-pennie 
galleries amongst the Gentlemen, and see their Knaueries 
and their pastimes. 

But alas ! if these were the sorest diseases (Thou noblest 
City of the now-noblest Nation) that Idlenes does infect thee 
with : thou hast Phisick sufficient in thy selfe, to purge thy 
bodie of them. No, no, hee is not slothfull, that is onelye 
lazie, that onelye wastes his good houres, and his Siluer in 
Luxury, & licentious ease, or that onely (like a standing 
water) does nothing, but gather corruption : no, hee is the 
true Slothfull man that does no good. And how many 
would crie Guilty vnto thee, if this were their Inditement ? 
Trry Maiestrates that (when they see thee most in danger) 
put vp the swordes, that Iustice hath guided, to their 
loynes, & flie into the countrie, leauing thee destitute of 
their Counsell, they would crie guilty, they are slothfull. 

Thy Phisitions, that fearing to die by that which they 
Hue, (sicknes) doe most vnkindely leaue thee when y u art 
ready to lye vpon thy death bed, They are slothful, They 
would crie Guilty. Thy great men, and such as haue been 
thy Rulers, that being taken out of poore Cradles, & 
nursed vp by thee, haue fild their Cofers with golde,*and 



40 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

their names w 6 honour, yet afterwards growing weary of 
thee, (like Mules hauing suckt their dammes) most ingrate- 
fully haue they stolne from thee, spending those blessings 
which were thine, vpon those that no way deserue them, 
Are not These Slothful ? They would crie guiltye. There 
is yet one more, whome I would not heare to Cry Guilty, 
because (of all others) I would not haue them slothfull. 
O you that speake the language of Angels, and should 
indeed be Angels amogst vs, you that haue offices aboue 
those of Kinges, that haue warrat to comaund Princes, & 
controle them, if they doe amisse : you that are Stewards 
ouer the Kings house of heauen, and lye heere as Embas- 
sadors about the greatest State-matters in the world : 
what a dishonour were it to your places, if it should bee 
knowne that you are Sloathfull ? you are sworne labourers, 
to worke in a Vineyard, which if you dresse not carefully, 
if you cut it not artificially, if you vnderprop it not wisely 
whe you see it laden, if you gather not the fruites in it, 
when they bee ripe, but suffer them to drop down, and 
bee eaten vp by Swine, O what a deere account are you 
to make him that must giue you your hire ? you are the 
Beames of the Sun that must ripen the Grapes of the Vine, 
& if you shine not cleerely, he will eclipse you for euer : 
your tongues are the instruments y* must cut off rancke & 
idle Sprigs, to make the bearing-braunches to spred, and vn- 
lesse you keep them sharpe, and be euer pruning with them, 
he will cast you by, and you shall be eaten vp with rust. 
The Church is a garden and you must weede it : it is a 
Fountaine, & you must keepe it cleere : it is her Husbands 
Iewell, and you must pollish it : it is his best belooued, and 
you must keepe her chast. 

Many Merchants hath this Cittie to her Sonnes, of al 
which you are the most noble, you trafficke onely for mens 
Soules, sending them to the Land of Promise, and to the 
heauenly Ierusalem, and receiuing from thence (in Exchange) 
the ritchest Commoditie in the world, your owne saluation. 



SINNES OF LONDON 41 

O therefore bee not you Slothfull : for if being chosen 
Pilots, you Sleepe, and so sticke vpon Rockes, you hazard 
your owne shipwracke more then theirs that venture with 
you. 

What a number of Colours are heere grounded, to paint 
out Sloth in his vglines, and to make him loathed, whilst 
he (yawning, and his Chin knocking nods into his brest) 
regardes not the whips of the moste crabbish Satyristes. 
Let vs therfore looke vpon his Horse-litter that hee rides 
in, and so leaue him. 

A couple of vnshodde Asses carry it betweene them, it is 
all sluttishly ouergrowne with Mosse on the out-side, and 
on the inside quilted through out with downe pillowes : 
Sleepe and Plenty leade the Fore-Asse ; a pursie double 
chind Lcena, riding by on a Sumpter-horse with prouader 
at his mouth, & she is the Litter-Driuer : shee keepes two 
Pages, & those are an Irish Beggar on the one side, & One 
that sayes he has been a Soldier on the other side. His 
attendants are Sicknes, Want, Ignorace, Infamy, Bddage, 
Palenes, Blockishnes, and Carelesnes. The Retayners 
that wear his cloth are Anglers, Dumb Ministers, Players, 
Exchange-Wenches, Gamsters, Panders, Whores and F idlers. 



Apishnesse : 

OR 

The fift dayes Triumph. 

SLoth was not so slow in his march, when hee entred 
the Citie, but Apishnesse (that was to take his turne 
next) was as quick. Do you not know him ? It 
cannot be read in any Chronicle, that he was euer with 
Henrie the eight at Bulloigne or at y e winning of Turwin & 
Turnay : for (not to belie the sweete Gentleman,) he was 
neither in the shell then, no nor then when Paules- steeple 
and the Weathercocke were on fire ; by which markes 
(without looking in his mouth) you may safely sweare, 
that hees but yong, for hees a feirse, dapper fellow, more 
light headed then a Musitian : as phantastically attyred as 
a Court Ieaster : wanton in discourse : lasciuious in be- 
hauiour ; iocond in good companie : nice in his trencher, 
and yet he feedes verie hungerly on scraps of songs : he 
drinkes in a Glasse well, but vilely in a deepe French-bowle : 
yet much about the yeare when Monsieur came in, was 
hee begotten, betweene a French Tayler, and an English 
Court-Seamster. This Signior Ioculento (as the diuell 
would haue it) comes prawncing in at Cripplegate, and he 
may well doe it, for indeede all the parts hee playes are 
but con'd speeches stolne from others, whose voices and 
actions he counterf eites : but so lamely, that all the Cripples 
in tenne Spittle-houses, shewe not more halting. The 
Grauer Browes were bent against him, and by the awfull 

42 



THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 43 

Charmes of Reuerend Authoritie, would haue sent him downe 
from whence he came, for they knew howe smooth soeuer 
his lookes were, there was a diuell in his bosome : But hee 
hauing the stronger faction on his side, set them in a 
Mutenie, Sceuitque animis ignobile vulgus, the manie headed 
Monster fought as it had beene against Saint George, won 
the gate, and then with showtes was the Gaueston of the 
Time, brought in. But who brought him in ? None but 
richmens sonnes that were left well, and had more money 
giuen by will, then they had wit how to bestow it : none 
but Prentises almost out of their yeers, and all the Tailors, 
Haberdashers, and Embroderers that could be got for loue 
or money, for these were prest secretly to the seruice, by 
the yong and wanton dames of the Citie, because they would 
not be seene to shewe their loue to him themselues. 

Man is Gods Ape, and an Ape is Zani to a man, doing 
ouer those trickes (especially if they be knauish) which hee 
sees done before him : so that Apishnesse is nothing but 
counterfetting or imitation : and this flower when it first 
came into the Citie, had a prettie scent, and a delightfull 
colour, hath bene let to run so high, that it is now seeded, 
and where it f als there rises vp a stinking weede. 

For as man is Gods ape, striuing to make artificiall 
flowers, birdes, &c. like to the natural : So for the same 
reason are women, Mens Shee Apes, for they will not bee 
behind them the bredth of a Taylors yard (which is nothing 
to speake of) in anie new-fangled vpstart fashion. If men 
get vp French standing collers, women will haue the 
French standing coller too : if Dublets with little thick 
skirts, (so short that none are able to sit vpon them,) 
w omens foreparts are thick-skirted too : by surfetting vpon 
which kinde of phantasticall Apishnesse in a short time, they 
fall into the disease of pride : Pride is infectious, and breedes 
prodigalitie : Prodigalitie after it has runne a little, closes 
vp and festers, and then turnes to Beggerie. Wittie was 
that Painter therefore, that when hee had limned one of 



44 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

euery Nation in their proper attyres, and beeing at his 
wittes endes howe to drawe an Englishman : At the last 
(to giue him a quippe for his follie in apparell) drewe him 
starke naked, with Sheeres in his hand, and cloth on his 
arme, because none could cut out his fashions but himselfe. 

For an English-mans suite is like a traitors bodie that 
hath beene hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set vp 
in seuerall places : his Codpeece is in Denmarke, the collor 
of his Dublet, and the belly in France : the wing and narrow 
sleeue in Italy : the short waste hangs ouer a Dutch 
Botchers stall in Vtrich : his huge sloppes speakes Spanish : 
Polonia giues him the Bootes : the blocke for his heade 
alters faster then the Feltmaker can fitte him, and thereupon 
we are called in scorne Blockheades. And thus we that 
mocke euerie Nation, for keeping one fashion, yet steale 
patches from euerie one of them, to peece out our pride, 
are now laughing-stocks to them, because their cut so 
scuruily becomes us : 

This sinne of Apishnesse, whether it bee in apparell, or in 
diet, is not of such long life as his fellowes, and for seeing 
none but women and fooles keepe him companie, the one 
wil be ashamed of him when they begin to haue wrinckles, 
the other when they feele their purses light. The Magis- 
trate, the wealthy commoner, and the auncient Cittizen, 
disdaine to come neare him : wee were best therefore, take 
note of such things as are aboute him, least on a suddaine 
hee slip out of sight. 

Apishnesse rides in a Chariot made of nothing but cages, 
in which are all the strangest out-landish Birds that can 
be gotten : the Cages are stucke full of Parats feathers : 
the Coach-man is an Italian Mownti-banck who driues a 
Fawne ,'and a Lambe, for they drawe this Gew-gaw in 
Winter, when such beasts are rarest to be had : In Sommer, 
it goes alone by the motion of wheeles : two Pages in light 
coloured suites, embrodered full of Butterflies, with wings 
that flutter vp with the winde, run by him, the one being a 



SINNES OF LONDON 45 

dauncing boy, the other a Tumbler : His attendants are 
Folly, Laughter, Inconstancie, Riot, Nicenesse, and Vain- 
glorie : when his Court remoues, hee is folowed by Tobac- 
conists, Shittlecock-makers, Feather -makers, Cob-web-lawne- 
weauers, Perfumers, young Countrie Gentlemen, and Fooles, 
In whose Ship whilest they all are sayling, let vs obserue 
what other abuses the Verdimotes Inquest doe present on 
the lande, albeit they bee neuer reformed, till a second 
Chaos is to bee refined. In the meane time, In noua fert 
Animus. 



H 



Shauing : 
OR 
The sixt dayes Triumph. 

Ow ? Shauing ! Me thinkes Barbers should crie to 
their Customers winck hard and come running out 
of their shoppes into the open streetes, throwing 
all their Suddes out of their learned Latin Basons into my 
face for presuming to name the Mysterie of Shauing in so 
villanous a companie as these seuen are. Is that Trade 
(say they) that for so many yeares hath beene held vp by 
so many heades, and has out-bearded the stowtest in 
England to their faces, Is that Trade, that because it is 
euermore Trimming the Citie, hath beene for many yeers 
past made vp into a Societie, and hath their Guild, and their 
Priuiledges with as much freedome as the best, must that 
nowe bee counted a sinne (nay and one of the Deadly sinnes) 
of the Cittie ? No, no, be not angry with me, (O you that 
bandie away none but sweete washing Balles, and cast 
none other then Rose-waters for any mans pleasure) for 
there is Shauing within the walles of this Great Metropolis, 
which you neuer dreamed of : A shauing that takes not 
only away the rebellious haires, but brings the flesh with 
it too : and if that cannot suffice, the very bones must 
follow. If therfore you, and Fiue companies greater then 
yours, should chuse a Colonel, to lead you against this 
mightie Tamburlaine, you are too weake to make him 
Retire, and if you should come to a battell, you would 
loose the day. 

4 6 



THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 47 

For behold what Troopes forsake the Standard of the 
Citie, and flie to him : neither are they base & common 
souldiers, but euen those that haue borne armes a long 
time. Be silent therfore, and be patient : and since there 
is no remedie but that (this combatant that is so cunning 
at the sharp) wil come in, mark in what triumphant and proud 
manner, he is marshalled through Newgate : At which 
Bulwarke (& none other) did he (in policy) desire to shew 
himself. First, because he knew if the Citie should play 
with him, as they did w* Wiat, Newgate held a nuber, that 
though they were false to all the world, would be true to 
him. Couragiously therfore does he enter : All of them 
that had once serued vnder his colors (and were now to 
suffer for the Truth, which they had abused) leaping vp 
to the Iron lattaces, to beholde their General, & making 
such a ratling with shaking their chaines for ioy, as if 
Cerberus had bin come fro hell to Hue and die amongst them. 
Shauing is now lodged in the heart of the Citie, but by 
whom ? and at whose charges ? Mary at a common purse, 
to which many are tributaries, & therfore no maruell if he 
be feasted royally. The first that paid their mony towards 
it, are cruel and couetous I,and-lords, who for the building 
vp of a Chimny, which stands them not aboue 30. s. and 
for whiting the wals of a tenement, which is scarce worth 
the daubing, raise the rent presently (as if it were new put 
into y e Subsidy book) assessing it at 3. li. a yeer more then 
euer it went for before : filthy wide-mouthd bandogs 
they are, that for a quarters rent will pull out their minis- 
ters throte, if he were their tenat : And (though it turn to 
the vtter vndoing of a man) being rubd with quicksiluer, 
which they loue because they haue mangy consciences, 
they will let to a drunken Flemming a house ouer his own 
coutry-mans head, thinking hees safe enough from the 
thunderbolts of their wiues and children, and from curses, 
and the very vengeance of heauen, if he get by the bargaine 
but so many Angels as will couer the crowne of his head. 



48 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

The next that laide downe his share, was no Sharer 
among the Players, but a shauer of yong Gentlemen, before 
euer a haire dare peepe out of their chinnes : and these 
are Vsurers : who for a little money, and a greate deal of 
trash : (as Fire-shouels, browne-paper, motley cloake-bags, 
&c.) bring yong Nouices into a fooles Paradice till they 
haue sealed the Morgage of their landes, and then like 
Pedlers, goe they (or some Familiar spirit for them, raizde 
by the Vsurers) vp and downe to cry Commodities, which 
scarce yeeld the third part of y e sum for which they take 
them vp. 

There are likewise other Barbers, who are so well cus- 
tomed, that they shaue a whole Citie sometymes in three 
dayes, and they doe it (as Bankes his horse did his tricks) 
onely by the eye, and the eare : For if they either see no 
Magistrate comming towardes them, (as being called back 
by the Common-weale for more serious imployments) or 
doe but heare that hee lyes sicke, vpon whom the health 
of a Cittie is put in hazard : they presently (like Prentises 
vpon Shoue-tuesday) take the lawe into their owne handes, 
and doe what they list. And this L,egion consists of Market- 
folkes, Bakers, Brewers, all that weigh their Consciences in 
Scales. And lastly, of the two degrees of Colliers, viz. 
those of Char-coles, and those of New-castle. Then haue 
you the Shauing of Fatherlesse children, and of widowes, 
and thats done by Executors. The Shauing of poore 
Clients especially by the Atturneyes Clearkes of your Courts, 
and thats done by writing their Billes of costs vpon 
Cheuerell. The Shauing of prisoners by extortion, first, 
taken by their keepers, for a prison is builded on such ranke 
and fertil ground, that if poore wretches sow it with hand- 
fulles of small debts when they come in, if they He there 
but a while to see the comming vp of them : the charges 
of the house will bee treble the demaund of the Creditor. 
Then haue you Brokers y* shaue poor men by most iewish 
interest : marry the diuils trimme them so soone as they 



SINNES OF LONDON 49 

haue washed others. I wil not tell how Vintners shaue 
their Guestes with a little peece of Paper not aboue three 
ringers broade ; for their roomes are like Barbars Chaires : 
Men come into them willingly to bee Shauen. Onely (which 
is worst) bee it knowne to thee (0 thou Queene of Cities) thy 
Inhabitants Shaue their Consciences so close, that in the 
ende they growe balde, and bring foorth no goodnesse. 

Wee haue beene quicke (you see) in Trimming this Cutter 
of Queene Kith, because tis his propertie to handle others 
so, let vs bee as nymble in praysing his Household-stuff e : 
The best part of which is his Chariot, richly adorned, It is 
drawen by foure beasts : the 2. formost are a Wolfe (which 
will eate till he be readie to burst) and hee is Coach-fellow 
to a she-Beare, who is cruell euen to women great with 
childe : behinde them are a couple of Blood-houndes : the 
Coach-man is as Informer : Two Pettifoggers that haue 
beene turned ouer the barre, are his Lackies : his Hous- 
hold seruants are Wit (who is his Steward) : Audacitie : 
Shifting : Inexorabilitie : and Disquietness of mind : The 
Meanie are (besides some persons before named) skeldring 
soldiers, and begging schollers. 



Crueltie : 

OR 

The seuenth and last dayes Triumph. 

What a weeke of sinfull Reueling hath heere bin 
with these six proud Lords of Misrule ? to 
which of your Hundred parishes (O you 
Citizens) haue not some one of these (if not all) remoued 
their Courts, and feasted you with them ? your Percullises 
are not strong inough to keepe them out by day, your 
Watchmen are too sleepy to spie their stealing in by 
night. There is yet another to enter, as great in power 
as his fellowes, as subtill, as full of mischiefe : If 
I shoulde name him to you, you would laugh mee to 
scorne, because you cannot bee perswaded that such a 
one should euer bee suffered to liue within the freedome : 
yet if I name him not to you, you may in time, by him 
(as by the rest) bee vndone. It is Crueltie, O strange ! mee 
thinkes London should start vp out of her sollid founda- 
tion, and in anger bee ready to fall vppon him, and grinde 
him to dust that durst say, shee is possest with such a 
deuill. Cruelty ! the verie sound of it shewes that it is no 
English word : it is a Fury sent out of hel, not to inhabit 
within such beautif ull walles, but amongst Turkes and Tar- 
tars. The other sixe Monsters transforme themselues into 
Amiable shapes, and set golden, inticing Charmes to winne 
men to their Circcean loue, they haue Angelical faces to 
allure, and bewitching tongues to inchaunt : But Cruelty 
is a hag, horred in forme, terrible in voice, formidable in 

50 



THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON 51 

threates, A tyrant in his very lookes, and a murderer in all 
his actions. 

How then commeth it to passe that heere he seekes 
entertainment ? For what Cittie in the world, does more 
drie vp the teares of the Widdowe, and giues more warmth 
to the fatherlesse then this ancient and reuerend Grandam 
of Citties ? Where hath the Orphan (that is to receiue great 
portions) lesse cause to mourne the losse of Parents ? He 
findes f oure and twentie graue Senators to bee his Fathers in- 
stead of one: the Cittie it selfe to bee his Mother : her Officers 
to bee his Seruants, who see that hee want nothing : her 
lawes to suffer none to doe him wrong : and though he be 
neuer so simple in wit, or so tender in yeares, shee lookes 
as warily to that welth which is left him, as to the Apple 
of her owne eye. Where haue the Leaper and the Lunatick 
Surgery, and Phisicke so good cheape as heere ? their pay- 
ment is onely thankes : large Hospitalls are erected (of 
purpose to make them lodgings) and the rent is most easie, 
onely their prayers : yet for all this, that Charitie hath 
her Armes full of children, & that tender-brested Compas- 
sion is still in one street or other dooing good workes : 
off from the Hindges are one of the 7. Gates readie to bee 
lifted, to make roome for this Giant : the Whiflers of your 
inferior and Chiefe companies cleere the wayes before him, 
men of all trades with shoutes & acclamations followed in 
throges behinde him, yea euen the siluer-bearded, & 
seuearest lookt cittizes haue giuen him welcomes in their 
Parlors. 

There are in Lond. & within the buildings, y* roiid 
about touch her sides, & stand within her reach, Thirteene 
strong houses of sorrow, where the prisoner hath his heart 
wasting away sometimes a whole prentiship of yeres in 
cares. They are most of them built of Freestone, but none 
are free within the : cold are their imbracemets : vnwhol- 
som is their cheare : dispaireful their lodgings, vncofort- 
able their societies, miserable their inhabitants : O what 



52 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

a deale of wretchednes can make shift to lye in a little 
roome ! if those 13. houses were built al together, how rich 
wold Griefe be, hauing such large inclosures ? Doth cruelty 
challegea freemans roome in the City because of these places? 
no, the politicke body of the Republike wold be infected, 
if such houses as these were not maintained, to keepe vp 
those that are vnsound. Claimes he then an inheritance 
here, because you haue whipping postes in your streetes 
for the Vagabond ? the Stocks and the cage for the vnruely 
beggar ? or because you haue Carts for the Bawde and the 
Harlot, and Beadles for the Lecher ? neither. Or is it 
because so many mothly Sessions are held ? so many 
men, women and Children cald to a reconing at the Bar 
of death for their Hues ? and so many lamentable hempen 
Tragedies acted at Tiburne ? nor for this : Iustice should 
haue wrong, to haue it so reported. No (you Inhabitants 
of this little world of people) Crueltie is a large Tree & 
you all stand vnder it : you are cruel in compelling your 
Against children (for wealth) to goe into loathed beds, 

Mariages. for therby you make jthem bond-slaues : 
what ploughman is so foolish to yoake young hecfars & 
old bullocks together ? yet such is your husbandry. In 
fitting your Coaches with horses, you are very curious to 
haue them (so neere as you ca) both of a colour, both of a 
height, of an age, of proportion, and will you bee carelesse 
in coupling your Children ? he into whose bosome three- 
score winters haue thrust their frozen fingars, if hee be 
rich (though his breath bee rancker then a Muck-hill, his 
bodye more drye than Mummi, and his minde more lame 
than Ignorance it selfe) shall haue offered vnto him (but it is 
offered as a sacrifice) the tender boosome of a Virgin, vpon 
whose fore-head was neuer written sixteene yeares : if she 
refuse this liuing death (for lesse than a death it cannot 
be vnto her) She is threatned to bee left an out-cast, cursd 
for disobedience, raild at daily, and reuylde howerlye : to 
saue her selfe from which basenes, She desprately runnes 



SINNBS OF LONDON 53 

into a bondage, and goes to Church to be married, as if 
she went to be buried. But what glorye atcheiue you in 
these conquests ? you doe wrong to Time, inforcing May 
to embrace December : you dishonour Age, in bringing it 
into scorne for insufficiency, into a loathing for dotage, 
into all mens laughter for iealousie. You make your 
Daughters looke wrinckled with sorrowes, before they be 
olde, & your sonnes by riot, to be beggars in midst of their 
youth. Hence come it, y* murders are often contriued, 
& as often acted : our countrie is woful in fresh 
examples : Hence comes it, y t the Courtier giues you an 
open scoffe, y e clown a secret mock, the Cittizen y* dwels 
at your threshald, a ieery frup : Hence it is, y* if you goe 
by water in the calmest day, you are driuen by some 
f atall storme into y e vnlucky & dangerous hauen betweene 
Greenewich & London. You haue another cruelty in keep- 
ing men in prison so long, til sicknes & death deal mildely 
with them, and (in despite of al tyranny) baile Against 
them out of all executions. When you see a d£on. 
poore wretch that to keep life in a loathed body hath not 
a house left to couer his head from the tempestes, nor a 
bed (but the common bedde which our Mother the earth 
allowes him) for his cares to sleepe vppon, when you haue 
(by keeping or locking him vp) robd him of all meanes to 
get, what seeke you to haue him loose but his life ? The 
miserable prisoner is ready to famish, yet that canot mooue 
you, the more miserable wife is readye to runne mad with 
dispaire, yet that cannot melt you : the moste of all 
miserable, his Children lye crying at your dores, yet nothing 
can awaken in you compassion : if his debts be heauie, the 
greater and more glorious is your pitty to worke his free- 
dome, if they be light, the sharper is the Vengeance that will 
be heaped vpon your heades for your hardnes of heart. 
Wee are moste like to God that made vs, when wee shew 
loue one to another, and doe moste looke like the Diuell 
that would destroy vs, when wee are one anothers 



54 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

tormenters. If any haue so much flint growing about his 
bosome, that he will needes make Dice of mens bones, I 
would there were a lawe to compell him to make drinking 
bowles of their Sculs too : and that euerie miserable debter 
that so dyes, might be buried at his Creditors doore, that 
when hee strides ouer him he might thinke he still rises vp 
(like the Ghost in Ieronimo) crying Reuenge. 

Crueltie hath yet another part to play, it is acted (like the 
Against v n - old Morralls at Maningtree) by Trades-men, 

consionable n . . ., /-v,j- i 

Maisters. marrye seuerall companies in the Cittie haue 
it in study, and they are neuer perfect in it, till the end of 
seauen yeares at least, at which time, they come off with 
it roundly. And this it is : When your seruants haue made 
themselues bondmen to inioy your fruitefull hand-maides, 
thats to say, to haue an honest and thriuing Art to Hue 
by : when they haue fared hardly with you by Indenture, 
& like your Beasts which carry you haue patiently borne 
al labours, and all wrongs you could lay vpon them. 

When you haue gathered the blossomes of their youth, 
and reaped the fruites of their strength, And that you can 
no longer (for shame) hold them in Captiuitie, but that by 
the lawes of your Country and of conscience, you must 
vndoe their fetters, Then, euen then doe you hang moste 
weightes at their heeles, to make them sincke downe for 
euer : when you are bound to send them into the world 
to Hue, you send them into the world to beg : they seru'd 
you seuen yeeres to pick vp a poore liuing, and therein you 
are iust, for you will be sure it shaU be a poore Huing 
indeede they shall pick vp : for what do the rich cubs ? 
like foxes they lay their heads together in conspiracy, 
burying their leaden consciences vnder the earth, to the 
intent that aU waters that are wholesome in taste, and haue 
the sweetnes of gaine in going downe, may be drawne 
through them only, being the great pipes of their Company, 
because they see tis the custome of the Citty, to haue all 
waters that come thither, conueyed by such large vessels, 



SINNBS OF LONDON 55 

and they will not breake the customes of the Citty. When 
they hane the fullnesse of welth to the brim, that it runs 
ouer, they scarce will suffer their poore Seruant to take that 
which runs at waste, nor to gather vp the wind-fals, when 
all the great trees, as if they grew in the garden of the 
Hesperides, are laden with golden apples : no, they would 
not haue them gleane the scattered eares of corne, though 
they themselues cary away y e full sheafes : as if Trades 
that were ordaind to be Communities, had lost their first 
priuiledges, and were now turned to Monopolyes. But 
remember (6 you Rich men) that your Seruants are your 
adopted Children, they are naturalized into your bloud, 
and if you hurt theirs, you are guilty of letting out your 
owne, than which, what Cruelty can be greater ? 

What Gallenist or Paracelsian in the world, by all his 
water-casting, and minerall extractions, would iudge, that 
this fairest-fac'de daughter of Brute, (and good daughter 
to King Lud, who gaue her her name) should haue so much 
corruption in her body ? vnlesse that (beeing 2700 and 
now two thousand and seuen hundred yeeres odde yf ere -j 

J since London 

old) extreme age should fill her full of diseases ! was . fat 
Who durst not haue sworne for her, that of all Brute, 
loathsome sinnes that euer bred within her, she had neuer 
toucht the sinne of cruelty ? It had wont to be a Spanish 
Sicknes, and hang long (incurably) vpon the body of their 
Inquisition ; or else a French disease, running all ouer that 
Kingdome in a Massacre ; but that it had infected the 
English, especially the people of this now once-againe 
New-reard-Troy, it was beyond beliefe. But is she cleerely 
purg'd of it by those pills that haue before bin giuen her ? 
Is she now sound ? Are there no dregs of this thick and 
pestilenciall poyson, eating still through her bowels ? Yes : 
the vgliest Serpent hath not vncurld himselfe. She hath 
sharper and more black inuenomed stings within her, than 
yet haue bin shot forth. 

There is a Cruelty within thee (faire Troynouant) worse 



56 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

and more barbarous then all the rest, because it is halfe 
a ainst against thy owne selfe, and halfe against thy 

want of pia- Dead Sonnes and Daughters. Against thy dead 
C r?aii°in ex- children wert thou cruell in that dreadfull, 
s7cK.° horrid, and Tragicall yeere, when 30000 . of them 

l6 ° 2 ' (struck with plagues from heauen) dropt downe 

in winding-sheets at thy feet. Thou didst then take away 
all Ceremonies due vnto them, and haledst them rudely to 
their last beds (like drunkards) without the dead mans 
musick (his Bell.) Alack, this was nothing : but thou 
tumbledst them into their euerlasting lodgings (ten in one 
heape, and twenty in another) as if all the roomes vpo earth 
had bin full. The gallant and the begger lay together ; 
the scholler and the carter in one bed : the husband saw 
his wife, and his deadly enemy whom he hated, within a 
paire of sheetes. Sad & vnseemely are such Funeralls : 
So felons that are cut downe from the tree of shame and 
dishonor, are couered in the earth : So souldiers, after a 
mercilesse battaile, receiue vnhansome buriall. But suppose 
the Pestiferous Deluge should againe drowne this little world 
of thine, and that thou must be compeld to breake open 
those caues of horror and gastlinesse, to hide more of thy 
dead houshold in them, what rotten stenches, and con- 
tagious damps would strike vp into thy nosthrils ? thou 
couldst not lift vp thy head into the aire, for that (with 
her condensed sinnes) would stifle thee ; thou couldst not 
diue into the waters, for that they being teinted by the ay re, 
would poison thee. Art thou now not cruell against thy 
selfe, in not prouiding (before the land-waters of Affliction 
come downe againe vpon thee) more and more conuenient 
Cabins to lay those in, that are to goe into such farre 
countries, who neuer looke to come back againe ? If thou 
shouldst deny it, the Graues when they open, will be 
witnesses against thee. 

Nay, thou hast yet Another Cruelty gnawing in thy 
bosome ; for what hope is there y* thou shouldst haue 



SINNES OF LONDON 57 

pitty ouer others, when thou art vnmercifull to thy self ! 
Looke ouer thy walls into thy Orchards and Against 
Gardens, and thou shalt see thy seruants and S^f ' 
apprentises sent out cunningly by their Masters ^°/J M ^ 
at noone day vpon deadly errands, when they f lelds - 
perceiue that the Armed Man hath struck them, yea euen 
whe they see they haue tokens deliuered them from heauen 
to hasten thither, then send they them forth to walke vpon 
their graues, and to gather the flowers theselues that 
shall stick their own Herse. And this thy Inhabitants do, 
because they are loth & ashamd to haue a writing ouer 
their dores, to tell that God hath bin there, they had rather 
all their enemies in the world should put them to trouble, 
then that he should visit them. 

Looke againe ouer thy walls into thy Fields, and thou 
shalt heare poore and forsaken wretches lye groaning in 
ditches, and trauailing to seeke out Death vpon thy com- 
mon hye wayes. Hauing found him, he there throwes downe 
their infected carcases, towards which, all that passe by, 
looke, but (till common shame, and common necessity 
compell) none step in to giue them buriall. Thou setst vp 
posts to whip them when they are aliue : Set vp an Hospitall 
to comfort them being sick, or purchase ground for them to 
dwell in when they be well, and that is, when they be dead. 

Is it not now hye time to sound a Retreate, after so terrible 
a battaile fought betweene the seuen Electors of The CoM . 
the Low Inf email Country es, and one little Citty ? clusion - 
What armyes come marching along with them ? What 
bloudy cullors do they spread ? What Artillery do they 
mount to batter the walls ? How valiant are their seuen 
Generalls ? How expert ? How full of fortune to conquer ? 
Yet nothing sooner ouerthrowes them, than to bid them 
battaile first, and to giue them defiance. 

Who can denye now, but that Sinne (like the seuen-headed 
Nylus) hath ouerflowed thy banks and thy buildings (6 thou 
glory of Great Brittaine) and made thee fertile (for many 



58 THE SEVEN DEADLY 

yeeres together) in all kindes of Vices ? Volga, that hath 
fifty streames f ailing one into another, neuer ranne with so 
swift and vnresistable a current, as these Black-waters do, 
to bring vpon thee an Inundation. If thou (as thou hast 
done) kneelest to worship this Beast with Seuen Crowned 
Heads, and the Whore that sits vpon it, the fall of thee 
(that hast out-stood so many Citties) will be greater then that 
of Babylon. She is now gotten within thy walls ; she rides 
vp and downe thy streetes, making thee drunke out of her 
cup, and marking thee in the forhead with pestilence for 
her owne. She causes Violls of wrath to be powred vpon 
thee, and goes in triumph away, when she sees thee falling. 
If thou wilt be safe therefore and recouer health, rise vp 
in Armes against her, and driue her (and the Monster that 
beares her) out at thy Gates. Thou seest how prowdly 
and impetuously sixe of these Centaures (that are halfe 
man, halfe beast, and halfe diuell) come thundring alongst 
thy Habitations, and what rabbles they bring at their heeles; 
take now but note of the last, and marke how the seuenth 
rides : for if thou findest but the least worthy quality in 
any one of them to make thee loue him, I will write a 
Retractation of what is inueyd against them before, and 
pollish such an Apology in their defence, that thou shalt 
be enamored of them all. 

The body and face of this Tyrannous Commander, that 
leades thus the Reareward, are already drawne : his Chariot 
is framed all of ragged Flint so artificially bestowed, that as 
it runnes, they strike one another, and beate out fire that 
is able to consume Citties : the wheeles are many, and 
swift : the Spokes of the wheeles, are the Shinbones of 
wretches that haue bin eaten by misery out of prison. A 
couple of vnruly, fierce, and vntamed Tygers (cald Murder 
and Rashnes) drew the Chariot : Ignorance holds the reynes 
of the one, and Obduration of the other : Selfe-will is the 
Coachman. In the vpper end of the Coach, sits Cruelty alone, 
vpon a bench made of dead mens sculls. All the way that 



SINNES OF LONDON 59 

he rides, he sucks the hearts of widdowes and father-lesse 
children. He keepes neither foote-men nor Pages, for none 
will stay long with him. He hath onely one attendant 
that euer followes him, called Repentance, but the Beast 
that drawes him, runnes away with his good Lord and 
Master so fast before, that Repentance being lame (and 
therefore slow) tis alwayes very late ere he comes to him. 
It is to be feared, that Cruelty is of great authority where 
he is knowne, for few or none dare stand against him : 
Law only now and then beards him, and stayes him, in 
contempt of those that so terribly gallop before him : but 
out of the Lawes hands, if he can but snatch a sheathed 
sword (as oftentimes hee does) presently hee whips it out, 
smiting and wounding with it euery one that giues him 
the least crosse word. He comes into the Citty, commonly 
at All-gate, beeing drawne that way by the smell of bloud 
about the Barres, (for by his good will he drinks no other 
liquor :) but when hee findes it to be the bloud of Beasts 
(amongst the Butchers) and not of men, he flyes like 
lightning along the Causey in a madnes, threatning to 
ouer-runne all whom he meetes : but spying the Brokers 
of Hownsditch shuffling themselues so long together (like a 
false paire of Cards) till the Knaues be vppermost, onely to 
doe homage to him, he stops, kissing all their cheekes, calling 
them all his deerest Sonnes ; and bestowing a damnable 
deale of his blessing vpon them, they cry, Roome for Cruelty, 
and are the onely men that bring him into the Citty : 
To follow whom vp and downe so farre 
as they meane to goe with him, 

— Dii me terrent, & lupiter hostis. 

FINIS. 

Tho. Dekker. 



APPENDIX 

I AM indebted to my friend Mr. F. P. Wilson for the 
suggestion that the elaborate descriptions of the chariot, 
wheels, horses, coachmen etc., of the seven Sins, with 
which the entry of each of them into London is concluded, 
may owe something either directly to St. Bernard (whom 
Dekker quotes in his Foure Birdes of Noah's Arke, 1613), 
or to the account of the ' Foure wheeles of the chariot of 
coueteousnesse ' given in 1584 by George Whetstone, in his 
book A MIROVR \ For Magestrates \ Of CYTIES. The 
passage occurs at sig. I. i. verso, and runs : ' S. Bernard 
saith, y* the accursed chariot of coueteousnesse, is drawen 
with foure disloyal wheeles of vices, vz. Pusalanimite, Crueltie 
misprising of God, and forgetfulnesse of certaine death. The 
two horses are named Theft, & Hardnesse. The waggoner 
is Earnest desire to haue, who vseth two sharpe whippes : 
the one called Disordered appetite to get, the other, Feare to 
loose.' 

To anyone who reads Dekker's seven descriptions after 
this passage, there can remain no doubt of his indebtedness, 
and I fear to weaken a good case by suggesting that there may 
be an acknowledgement (whether conscious or not) of the 
debt in the fact that Dekker's ' Chariot . . . that Lying is 
drawne in, is made al of whetstones ' (28. 1.). Still, on the 
1584 title-page the earlier author's name was given as 
Whetstones, as it was on that of his English Myrror in 1586 ; 
and Dekker enjoyed a pun. 



61 



NOTES 

THE following notes, with some rare exceptions, are 
intended only for the brief explanation of such 
terms as might puzzle the average reader of 
to-day. Abbreviations are not annotated ; they consist 
of y e (the), y* (that), y u (thou), w* (with), and the sign - 
over a vowel, denoting the omission of a following n or m 
(the = then or them). 

P. 3, 2. Henry Fermor : apparently a minor patron of literature. 
To him, in 1608, George Wilkins dedicated his novel of The 
Painfull A dventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre. 

P. 4, 14. Skeldring : this word has two chief senses ; to beg 
(especially with the aid of pretending to be an old soldier) ; 
and to swindle, cheat, defraud. See 49, 20 and note. 

P. 5, 21. Conradus Gesner : famous for his series of five books on 
natural history, completed by 1587. 

P. 9, 1. in her streetes : in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572 ; 
see 55, 27. 

P. 10, 25. that Wonderfull yeere : in his side-notes, here and on 
p. 56, Dekker gives this year as 1602. We should call it 1603, 
as Dekker himself did in the title of his pamphlet The Wonder- 
full Yeare 1603 (published in that year), but he was working 
from the yearly Bills of Mortality, which extended from Decem- 
ber to December. 

P. 10, 31. Namque . . . refugit : Dekker has in mind Aeneas' 
mournful words to Dido, JEneid ii. 10-13: 

Sed, si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros, 
Et breviter Trojae supremum audire laborem, 
Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, 
Incipiam. 

The allusion gains peculiar point from the supposed Trojan 
origin of the victims of the plague ; see 55, 17-36, and note. 
P. 13, 1. Politick : premeditated and fraudulent. 

63 



64 NOTES 

P. 14, 8. one arm'd with an extentporall speech : the Elizabethan 
journalist was well aware of the comic side of civic or academic 
addresses of welcome, and indeed of rhetorical exercises in 
general. See Percy Reprints No. I, Nashe's Vnfortunate 
Traueller, pp. 43-8. 

P. 14, 16. tunde : i.e. tuned. The t is clear enough in the Douce 
and Malone copies, and is evidently correct, though Arber 
reads ' f[o]unde ' and the Cambridge edition ' funde.' 

P. 14, 23. turnd off : ' turning off the ladder ' is good Elizabethan 
for ' hanging.' The phrase is neatly used here to give an 
unexpected meaning to ' the ladder of promotion ' in the 
previous line. Nashe uses ' turnd ouer ' in the same sense 
(Percy Reprints No. I, 55, 3). 

P. 15, 3. Vpsy-Freeze, Crambo, Parmizant ■ these were regular 
tippling terms. The first was applied to swilling in the Frisian 
manner, and the last commemorates the drinkers of Parma, 
but Crambo still awaits precise definition. 

P. 15, 17. a Puny : a junior student in the Inns of Court. 

P. 15, 21. Politician : in the usual Elizabethan sense of schemer, 
conspirator. See 16, 31. 

P. 16, 10. Anatomize : dissect. 

P. 17, 20. Nam crimine : a reminiscence of the words, et crimine 
ab uno Disce omnes, with which ^Eneas introduces the treachery 
of Sinon ; Mneid ii. 65-66. 

P. 17, 31. veluet-garded ; a velvet-guard was either a trimming of 
velvet, or its wearer. These trimmings were affected by 
prosperous citizens, and Hotspur's inimitable lines on such 
precisians in dress and speech are well known (I. Hen. IV., III. 
i. 250-60). 

P. 18, 5. The Third House ; perhaps successive possession by three 
generations in the owner's family (cf. tertius heres in Roman 
law). 

P. 19, 20. Falling I the husband of Juliet's nurse (Romeo and 
Juliet, I. iii.) is the only fit commentator for this passage. 

P. 20, 16. Derick : he became hangman about 1601, and continued 
in the office till about 1647. The modern derrick, a crane, 
preserves his memory. 

P. 20, 23. welted : Dekker's Newes from Hell shows that usurers 
' went in black veluet coats, and welted gownes '. 

P. 20, 26. the Noble Science : see 5, 4, and note. This challenge 
by a German swordsman was evidently well known at the 
time, but I have not found other allusions to it. 

P. 21, 14. Legiar : ambassador. 

P. 22, 10. execution : of a writ ; see 53, 19. 



NOTES 65 

P. 24, 21. bottles: the usual word for a bundle of hay suggests 

the pun. 
P. 27, 4. paynted posts : the accepted sign of such houses. 
P. 27, 14. giue Armes : exhibit armorial bearings. 
P. 28, 6-8. Knights . . . Post 1 a knight of the post was the 

regular term for a professional false witness. For Post and 

Pair the N.E.D. quotes Nares : ' A game on the cards, played 

with three cards each, wherein much depends on vying, or 

betting on the goodness of your own hand.' 
P. 28, 9. Scambling : rapacious. 
P. 30, 23. circle : that drawn by a magician for purposes of 

conjuration. 
P. 30, 32. a private Play-house : the private playhouses, not being 

open to the weather, could be darkened for scenic illusion. 
P. 31, 14. battles : clubs. 

P. 32, 8. Woodcocke : habitual Elizabethan slang for a simpleton. 
P. 32, 22, Perpetuana suited Puritane : Perpetuana was ' a durable 

fabric of wool manufactured in England from the sixteenth 

century. ' — N.E.D. 
P. 32, 24. stewed Prunes: these appear to have been regularly 

provided in the houses already referred to at 27, 4. Such 

houses were naturally most frequent in the suburbs, which were 

outside the jurisdiction of the city. 
P. 33, 2. rackt : to rack wine is the technical phrase for drawing 

it from off the lees ; hence the pun. 
P. 33, 12. the Cannaries : a lively Spanish dance, supposed to have 

originated in the Canary Islands. There is a punning suggestion 

that they had ' drunk too much canaries ', which was (as Mistress 

Quickly told Doll Tearsheet) ' a marvellous searching wine. ' 
P. 33, 18. the Beadles Cothouse : the N.E.D., quoting this passage, 

defines cothouse as ' a slight shelter, a shed, outhouse, etc' 

Presumably it resembled those still in use by road-menders. 
P. 33, 28. browne Billes : halberds. 
P. 33, 31. the Counters : the three Counters were chiefly employed 

as prisons for debt and minor offences. 
P- 33, 33. the Garnish : ' money extorted from a new prisoner, 

either as a jailer's fee, or as drink-money for the other prisoners.' 

— N.E.D. 
P. 33, 35. reare : imperfectly cooked, underdone. 
P. 33, 36. the Bell-man : the public watchman, equipped with 

bell and lantern. 
P. 34, 6. What out-cryes . . . calles : a free version of the famous 

opening of the fifth scene of the second act of Kyd's Spanish 

Tragedie, when old Jeronimo rushes down to find his son 

5 



66 NOTES 

Horatio hanged in the bower in his garden. This in his mouth 
suggests that Dekker has in mind the woodcut on the title- 
page of the quarto, which represents Jeronimo, Bel-imperia, 
and one of the murderers, each with a scroll of words issuing 
from the mouth. Jeronimo's words are ' Alas it is my son 
Horatio ', but Dekker would remember merely the scroll. 
Naked bed may serve to remind the reader of to-day that 
night-gowns are a modern invention. 

P. 34, 1 3. in snuffe : in bad part. 

P. 34, 15. Vennie : bout (at fencing). 

P. 35, 6. yearking : lashing. 

P. 35, 9. Bucklersburie : a street, well known for its druggists, off 
Walbrook. 

P. 35, 13. shrode Husbands: I take shrewd to be used here in a 
good sense, to give the opposite of Vnthriftes : those who 
husband their resources carefully. 

P. 37, 2-10. Hindges . . . Mathematical! Instruments . . . Engines 
. . . Skrewes : the comparison of man to a machine was 
familiar to Elizabethan thought ; Hamlet touches on it in his 
letter to Ophelia (II. ii. 124), and Dowden, commenting on the 
passage, cites the full treatment of the subject in T. Bright's 
Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. 

P. 37, 30. as if the world ranne vpon wheeles : as it does in old 
Merrythought's song in the fifth act of The Knight of the 
Burning Pestle : 

With hey, trixy, terlery-whiskin, 
The world it runs on wheels. 

P. 38, 16. by the hardnesse of the hand : by manual occupations, 
like the ' hard-handed men, that work in Athens here ' who 
presented Bottom's tedious brief scene. 

P. 38, 27. their grates : the red lattices (through which Bardolph 
called to Falstafi's page) which betokened the windows of an 
alehouse. 

P. 38, 30. bushes : another usual sign of a drinking-house ; whence 
the proverb ' Good wine needs no bush.' 

P. 38, 36. Lurches, Rubbers : the term ' lurch ' was ' used in various 
games to denote a certain concluding state of the score, in 
which one player is enormously ahead of the other.' — N.E.D. 
' Rubber ' is still in regular use for a set of games, extending if 
necessary to three, in which the third is decisive. 

P. 39, 32. vnkindely : unnaturally. 

P. 40, 12. The Kings house of heauen : we should now write 'the 
King of heaven's house.' This is a very late use of the genitive 
construction normal in Chaucer's time (e.g. ' the Greekes hors 



NOTES 67 

Sinon '), but Dekker is using biblical language in this passage, 
and the archaism runs naturally from his pen. 

P. 41, 15. LcBna : bawd. 

P. 42, 8. Turwin 6- Turnay t Henry VIII besieged and took 
Terouanne and Tournay in the late summer of 15 13. See 
Percy Reprints No. I, 7, 6. 

P. 42, 10. when Paules-steeple . . . on fire : the steeple was set on 
fire by lighting on June 4, 1561. 

P. 42, 13. feirse : brisk, vigorous ; the word is still used in this 
sense in Derbyshire dialect. 

P. 42, 19. much about the yeare when Monsieur came in : Francis, 
Duke of Anjou, younger brother of Henry III, came to England 
to treat of marriage with Elizabeth towards the end of October, 
158 1, and left in the following February. 

P. 43, 7. the Gaueston of the Time : we probably owe the allusion 
to Marlowe's character of Gaveston in Edward II. 

P. 43, 16. Zani : mimic. 

P. 43, 19. flower when ; i.e. flower which when. 

P. 43, 36. that Painter : Andrew Borde ; see Introduction, p. x. 

P. 44, 8. Codpeece : the nearest modern equivalent would be a 
sporran. 

P. 44, 11. Botcher : a tailor who mends old clothes. 

P. 45, 7. Verdimotes Inquest : ' a judicial inquiry made by a 
wardmote.' — N.E.D. A wardmote is ' a meeting of the 
citizens of a ward ; esp. in the City of London, a meeting of 
the liverymen of a ward under the presidency of the alderman.' 

P. 46, 1. Shauing t Cheating. 

P. 46, 5. winch hard : while the customers, fearing soap-suds, 
followed these instructions, the barbers made good their escape. 

P. 46, 7. learned Latin Basons : latten was ' a mixed metal of 
yellow colour, either identical with, or closely resembling, brass.' 
— N.E.D. Puns upon it were very frequent. 

P. 47, 10. Wiat : in his rising to prevent Queen Mary's Spanish 
match, Sir Thomas Wyatt attempted to surprise Ludgate at 
two o'clock in the morning of February 8, 1553-4. Findingthe 
gate shut, and being hopeless of carrying it by assault, he was 
obliged to retreat and surrender. Dekker wrote, in collabora- 
tion with John Webster, a play called The Famous History of 
Sir Thomas Wyat. With the Coronation of Queen Mary, and 
the coming in of King Philip, which was first printed, also by 
Edward Allde, in 1607. 

P. 47, 25. presently ; immediately. The natural procrastination 
of mankind had not yet given to ' presently ' and ' by and by ' 
their modern meaning. 



68 NOTES 

P. 47, 26. Subsidy book : the register of those liable to contribute 
to Government subsidies. 

P. 47, 30. quicksiluer : the ' quick ' is presumably introduced 
only to give excuse for ' mangy ' in the following line. 

P. 48, 5-9. Fire-shouels . . . Commodities : a good illustration of 
the unsaleable nature of the goods which the usurer of the 
time employed for the swindling of his clients, who were forced 
to accept them as the whole or part of a loan, and re-sell them 
at a heavy loss. The object was to evade the law, which allowed 
no interest higher than 10 per cent. 

P. 48, 14. Bankes his horse : one of the many references in Eliza- 
bethan and later literature to the famous Morocco, reputed to 
have been capable of arithmetic, divination, and dancing. 

P. 48, 29. Cheuerell : kid-leather, easily stretched. Its pliability 
is alluded to by Shakespeare also : ' a sentence is but a cheveril 
glove to a good wit,' says Feste (Twelfth Night, III. i. 12). 

P. 49, 8. Cutter of Queene Hith : bravo, bully. Queenhithe was 
noted for its roughs. 

P. 49, 17. Turned ouer the barre : deprived of the status of a 
barrister. Nashe speaks of Lucifer as having been ' turnde 
ouer heauen barre for a wrangler ' (Percy Reprints No. I, 
105, 25). 

P. 49, 20. skeldring : begging on fraudulent grounds : see 41, 
17, One that sayes he has been a Soldier, and 4, 14 and note. 

P. 51, 21. workes : the colon makes an effective pause, though 
modern punctuation would use nothing heavier than a comma 
after the two clauses in opposition to ' all this '. 

P. 51, 32. prentiship : see note to 54, 12. 

P. 52, 1. a deale of wretchednesse . . . roome : Dekker has in mind 
Marlowe's line in The Jew of Malta, I. 72, ' Infinite riches in a 
little roome.' 

P. 52, 21. hecfars : heifers. 

P. 53, 15. hauen : Cuckold's Haven was a point on the Thames 
below Greenwich. Allusions to it are naturally frequent in 
Elizabethan literature ; the N.E.D. quotes from Day's lie 
of Guls, 1606, ' A young girle, married to an old man, doth 
[long] to run her husband ashore at Cuckolds haven.' 

P. 53, 19. executions : see 22, 10, and note. 

P. 54, 7. the Ghost in Ieronimo : the ghost of Andrea, in Kyd's 
Spanish Tragedie, appears in the Induction and between the 
acts, inciting Revenge (personified) to greater activity. The 
ghost is particularly insistent before the final act. 

P. 54, 9. Morralls : Morality plays. Manningtree was famous for 
its Whitsun fair. 



NOTES 69 

P. 54, 12. seauen y eaves : the period of a ' prentiship.' 
P. 55, 17-36. daughter of Brute . . . Troynouant 1 according to 
the popular myth of the Trojan colonisation of Britain, Brute, 
the great-grandson of JEneas, reigned over England from 
Troynovant (London). 
P. 59, 23. paire : pack ; this regular use for a set (pair of stairs, 
pair of beads, etc.) probably survives, in modern English, only 
of stairs in old collegiate buildings, where such directions as 
' two pair left ' may still be had from any porter. 



TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS 

THE following list enumerates such obvious misprints 
in the Douce copy of the edition of 1606 as have 
been tacitly corrected in the present text. The list 
is of no interest to the general reader, and is given merely 
for the information of textual critics and as a guarantee that 
the text has been altered only where evident misprints 
occur. One of the errors — ' Many ' for ' Mary ' at 28, 7 
— was in fact corrected during the printing of the 1606 
edition, and the Malone copy has ' Mary.' At 52. 31, the 
spelling might at first suggest an original ' blossome,' but 
bosom is required for antithesis with 52, 26 (and possibly 
54, 2), though the long f of the period gives, it must be con- 
fessed, no such possibility of mistaking s for o as is afforded 
by modern script. However, as ' bossome ' is not an 
Elizabethan (or any other) spelling, and ' boosome ' is, I have 
ventured to make the change to the latter, which at any 
rate retains the same number of letters. 
The sign > stands for ' has been emended to.' 

Page 4, line 12, they > the : 5. 20, Comadus > Conradus: 14. 23, 
feollwes > f ellowes : 21. 26, mony > many: 28. 7, Many > 
Mary : 28. 18, profanu > profanu : 30. 10, count > court : 
33. 20, of > off : 39. 26, there > their : 44. 9, Duble > 
Dublet : 48. 32, thery lie thee > they lie there : 51. 36, scocieties 
> societies: 52. 31, bossome > boosome: 53. n, Courtiers > 
Courtier. 
Mispunctuation : 

Page 9, line 31, (that > that(: 24. 15, because > (because: 28. 12, 
White-broth > White-broth) : 30. 17, )and > (and : 36. 23, 

7* 



72 TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS 

speake > speake) : him) > him : 38. 3, Galliards ( > Galliards) : 

38. 22, (and > and(: came >) came: 38. 23, him) > him: 

39. 27, (that > that( : 40. 20, Swine. > Swine, : 48. 6, &c> 
&c.) : 48. 9, Commodities) > Commodities, : 48. 26, Executors, 
> Executors. : 50. 9, day. > day, : 52. 24, ca, > ca) '. 53. 24', 
vp, > vp) : 55. 19, (that > that(. 



Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., 
London and Aylesbury. 



THE PERCY REPRINTS 

I. THE VNFORTVNATE TRAVELLER, OR, THE LIFE 
OF JACKE WILTON. BY THOMAS NASHE, 1594. 

5s. NET. 
C ' "The Unfortunate Traveller" is a masterpiece of direct narrative 
. . . the source of unfailing pleasure in this book is Nashe's way of telling 
his yarns. If "The Unfortunate Traveller" were not, in itself, as good 
fan as it remains to this day, it would still be important in the history of 
English prose and the English novel.' — The Times Lit. Sup. 

II. GAMMER GVRTONS NEDLE. BY MR. S., MR. OF 
ART [PROBABLY WILLIAM STEVENSON], 1575. 
4 s. 6d. NET. 

C ' Mr. Brett-Smith has edited the text with scrupulous care, correcting 
oversights found in even the most critical of previous editions, so that one 
of the plays most frequently reprinted appears now for the first time in a 
perfectly authentic form.'' — The Manchester Guardian. 

III. PEACOCK'S FOUR AGES OF POETRY. SHELLEY'S 
DEFENCE OF POETRY. BROWNING'S ESSAY ON 
SHELLEY. 4s. 6d. NET. 

©, ' Mr. Brett-Smith is to be congratulated upon the way in which he 
has directed the modern reader's attention to three founts of extremely 
interesting speculations.' — The Spectator. 

IV. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINNES OF LONDON. By 
THOMAS DEKKER. 4s. 6d. NET. 

€L '"The Seven Deadly Sinnes" was a brilliant development of the 
theme revived by Nashe. . . . The booklet abounds in good humour and 
felicitous conceits. Above all, we have graphic views of the city, both in the 
hurry and rush of mid-day traffic, and glimmering with its taverns and gloaming 
alleys in the night-time.' — The Cambridge History of English Literature. 

V. INCOGNITA, or LOVE AND DUTY RECONCILED. 
A NOVEL. By WILLIAM CONGREVE. 4 s. 6d. NET. 

C ' Here at last is a dramatist, and, what is more, a humourist, at work 
upon prose fiction. . . . There is great promise in this early work, and the 
history of Congreve's later literary production is only one more instance of 
how hardly the novel can maintain itself in a period of dramatic activity.' — 
Sir Walter Raleigh : The English Novel. 

ft. In Preparation. 

VI. THE PLAYS OF SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE. FROM 
THE ORIGINAL QUARTOS. 

VII. THE POEMS OF RICHARD CORBET. 

C • Admirably printed, carefully edited, and reasonably annotated texts 
... we wish the series all success.' — The Observer. 

Oxford * Basil Blackwell * Broad Street 



FROM BASIL BLACKWELL'S LIST J* 

THE LOVES OF CLITIPHON AND LEUCIPPE 
Translated from the Greek of Achilles Tatius by 
WILLIAM BURTON. Reprinted for the first time 
from a copy now unique. Edited by STEPHEN 
GASELEE and H. F. B. BRETT-SMITH. 

C Written by William Burton, brother to the author of 
The Anatomy of Melancholy, who dedicated it to Shakespeare's 
patron, the Earl of Southampton, it is probable that this book 
was publicly burnt by archiepiscopal order, for it survives only 
in a single copy, printed by Thomas Creed in 1597. From that 
unique copy the reprint will be made. 

Its very rarity prevented it from having much influence on 
contemporary literature ; but in addition to its Burtonian 
interest it ranks as a fine example of the literary prose of the 
late sixteenth century in England. 

Achilles Tatius was probably the last of the school of Greek 
novelists which flourished in late classical days, and his story 
is probably the best novel of them all in the sense that it most 
resembles the fiction of our own day. 

The edition is limited to 500 nu?nbered copies on Bachelor's 
hand-made Kelmscott paper at £3 3^., and 10 copies on vellum 
at 20 guineas each. 

GREENE'S NEWES both FROM HEAVEN 
and HELL, by B. R, 1593; and GREENE'S 
FUNERALLS, by R. B., 1594. Reprinted from the 
original editions, with notes by R. B. M c KERROW. 
7s. 6d. net. 

C Greene's Newes is a satirical account of adventures of 
Robert Greene's ghost after his death. It has many references 
to his life and works and affords rather lively reading. It 
is believed to be by Barnaby Rich. The book, which is 
extremely scarce, has now been reprinted for the first time. 
Greenes Funeralls consist of verses in praise of Greene. 
There seems reason for believing the writer to be Richard 
Barnfield. 

JOHN WEEVER'S EPIGRAMMES in the oldest 
cut and newest fashion. Reprinted from the original 
edition, with notes by R. B. M c KERRO W. 7s. 6d. net. 
C The only copy now known is in the Bodleian Library. 
The book has early reference to Shakespeare, Spenser, Drayton, 
Ben Jonson, Marston, and many of their contemporaries. 



FROM BASIL BLACKWELL'S LIST 



A 



N ANATOMY OF POETRY * By A. WIL- 
X LIAMS-ELLIS * With Prefatory Letters by 
EDMUND GOSSE and J. C. SQUIRE. 7s. 6d. net. 

C A book of stimulating and constructive criticism that 
will be as helpful to poets as to their readers. 

As Poetry Editor and one of the chief literary critics of 
The Spectator, the author is not only in close touch with the 
modern tendencies of English poetry, but has an intimate 
knowledge of English classics that is clearly reflected in the 
comprehensive and illuminating manner in which the whole 
subject is treated. 



MODERN POETRY * By ARTHUR MEL- 
VILLE CLARKE, M.A., sometime Lecturer in 
English at University College, Reading. 2s. 6d. net. 

<L In this essay Mr. Clarke handles the most difficult and 
absorbing of all critical problems — the estimation of the 
value and direction of contemporary poetry. 

He shows how far it is indebted to tradition, and with 
what success it is endeavouring to break away. He says 
many illuminating things about the representatives of both 
the right and left wings among the moderns — from Dr. 
Bridges to the Vers Librettists — estimating their achieve- 
ments against the background of English poetry as a whole ; 
and he ends with a brilliant enquiry into the possibilities 
of the immediate future. 



THE POETIC PROCESSION * A Beginner's 
Introduction to English Poetry. By J. F. ROX- 
BURGH, Sixth Form Master at Lancing. Second and 
Revised Edition. 2s. 6d. net. 

C "A delightful essay, intended as a beginner's intro- 
duction to English poetry ... a brilliant tour deforce . . . 
exceedingly interesting." — The Spectator. 



FROM BASIL BLACKWELL'S LIST J*. 

THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE AND 
OTHER STUDIES. By W. J. LAWRENCE. 
Illustrated. First Series. 12s.6d.net. 

C Seven hundred and sixty numbered copies. Type 
distributed. 

THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE AND 
OTHER STUDIES. By W. J. LAWRENCE. 
Illustrated. Second Series. 12s.6d.net. 

C Seven hundred and sixty numbered copies. Type 
distributed. 

Mr. W. J. Lawrence has long been recognised by scholars 
as a leading authority on the Elizabethan stage : and the 
studies collected in these two volumes represent many 
years' ungrudging research. Some of the papers appeal 
keenly to musical antiquaries, particularly the one in which 
strong reasons are advanced for assigning to Henry Purcell 
the famous " Macbeth " music so long attributed to Matthew 
Lock. Both volumes are copiously illustrated. 

THE REHEARSAL. By GEORGE VILLIERS, 
Duke of Buckingham (1625-87). Edited by 
MONTAGUE SUMMERS. 10s. 6d. net. 

C. Five hundred and ten numbered copies. 

Many are the editions of this famous burlesque, but 
Mr. Summers' is incomparably the handsomest and most 
scholarly. Some readers may possibly judge that the editor's 
enthusiasm for The Rehearsal is a trifle excessive, but all 
students of Restoration literature will gratefully recognise 
the interest and value of his researches. 

SHAKESPEARE'S SONGS * Bound in block- 
printed paper covers, is. 6d. net. 

C This little collection includes all the complete songs 
and some of the more lyrical of the fragments sung by 
characters in Shakespeare's Plays. 



FROM BASIL BLACKWELL'S LIST *> 

SHAKESPEARE'S WARWICKSHIRE CON- 
TEMPORARIES * By CHARLOTTE CAR- 
MICHAEL STOPES. With photogravure frontispiece. 
6s. net. 

C This book describes the Warwickshire of Shakespeare's 
time, and gives an account of his Warwickshire friends and 
neighbours ; for example, Richard P'ield, his schoolfellow, 
who became a publisher in London, and issued his Venus 
and Adonis ; the Lucies of Charlecote ; his son-in-law, 
Dr. John Hall ; Michael Drayton, who used to spend the 
summer at Clifford Chambers, near Stratford-upon-Avon ; 
the Arden family, to which Shakespeare's mother belonged ; 
the Cloptons, the Trussels of Billesley, the Combes, etc. 



SHAKESPEARE IN ITALY. By LACY COLLI- 
SON-MORLEY. Illustrated. 7s. 6d. net. 

C This original study will be a valuable pendant to 
Monsieur Jusserand's delightful volume Shakespeare in 
France. 



SIDELIGHTS ON SHAKESPEARE * Being 
Studies of "The Two Kinsmen," "Henry VIII," 
" Arden of Feversham," " A Yorkshire Tragedy," " The 
Troublesome Reign of King John," " King Leir," 
" Pericles Prince of Tyre." By DUGDALE SYKES. 
7s. 6d. net. 

C A skilful and adroit disputant ... all the essays 
here collected are of exceptional interest and value. 



EARLY ITALIAN POETS * The Italian Text 
with Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Translation. 
5s. net. 

C. The Italian poems (scattered through many volumes) 
are here for the first time collected. 



FROM BASIL BLACKWELL'S LIST j» 

PHILIP MASSINGER if By A. H. CRUICK- 
SH ANK, M.A., Professor of Greek in the University 
of Durham. With portrait and facsimiles. 15s. net. 

C " Three critics have done their best by Massinger . . . 
Coleridge . . . Leslie Stephen . . . and Swinburne . . . [but] 
we shall find Professor Cruickshank's book more useful 
perhaps than any of them ... a work of scholarship." 

The Times Literary Supplement. 

GEORGE HERBERT'S "COUNTRY PARSON." 
Edited, with Introduction, by H. C. BEECHING. 
Re-issue, paper cover, with labels, is. 6d. net. 

C " Breathes there a lover of books . . . who . . . will not 
welcome this attractive little volume ? The get-up and 
printing are so good that we regard it as a model reprint." 

The Literary World. 

SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GREEN KNIGHT. 
A 14th Century Poem translated into modern 
English Verse by KENNETH HARE. 3s. 6d. net. 

C " The jewel of mediaeval English Literature." 

Gaston Paris. 

GABRIEL HARVEY'S MARGINALIA * Col- 
lected and edited by PROFESSOR G. C. MOORE 
SMITH. Illustrated and with collotype reproduction 
of the earliest recorded notice of Shakespeare's Hamlet. 
1 6s. net. 

C Gabriel Harvey, the friend of Edmund Spenser, was 
an insatiable student, and (though he remained a poor man 
to the end of his long life) always contrived to find money 
for the purchase of books. On their flyleaves and margins 
he would jot down notes, which are often of exceptional 
interest. 

COMPLETE LIST ON APPLICATION 

OXFORD * BASIL BLACKWELL * BROAD STREET 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




013 999 525 9 



